Okay this is why I both love and despise the sex offender’s register. Love it because it lets me know if there is a rapist in my area, and despise it because it’s starting to get to where I am questioning its legality. In an effort to further mitigate online predators and people who take a leak in the woods, several videogame companies agreed to ban the accounts of 3500 registered New York sex offenders after an agreement with the attorney general’s office.
Eric Schneiderman announced Thursday that the agreement was intended to remove sex offenders from online games which are enjoyed by all ages. You can meet all sorts of people on the internet, and just about every game has a universal channel everyone (or a massive amount of players) can communicate on, or talk one-on-one. Modern games also allow for audio.
Companies that decided to go through with this include Microsoft, Sony, EA, Warner Brothers, Disney, Blizzard, and Apple according to Schneiderman.
Even though I support the intentions of the sex offender’s registry, I feel that the way it’s executed has made it an absolute failure. Once you’re on the register, your life is ruined. Meanwhile someone who shoplifts and gets a criminal record doesn’t have such problems. To me, this is simply the government adding to a sentence for people who have already been tried for a crime and punished, something I doubt is constitutional or even allowed under human rights.
Of course because humans have a problem with very vocal (and very stupid) individuals drowning out the majority with common sense, this will never get fixed. Especially with the attitude of people who think it should carry the death penalty. In absolute honesty, if you run off with someone you met on the internet and he turns out to be a lunatic or a sex offender then that’s your own fault.
I wonder if being given a decision that would turn into a PR nightmare if you refused can be considered a form of coercion.
Rian Quenlin
Something just crossed my mind, what would happen if someone notable got banned for an unrelated reason? Everyone would think they were a registered sex offender, and I’ve seen online communities dogpile on rumors like that before.
Chris Hernandez
I think they should only ban paedophiles specifically, but unfortunately the sex offenders list encompasses all who have preformed lewd acts such as urinating in a public place, lumping them in with the really dangerous offenders without providing details to discern between the two.
Rian Quenlin
Anyone that preys on others should be punted off, also, here’s the funny thing, most people who molest children aren’t even pedophiles in the first place. Children are just easy targets because of them being smaller and weaker. I recall the percentage being in the single digits.
Chris Hernandez
I agree, I just mean we shouldn’t punish though who may or may not have been drunk and couldn’t control their bladder in a park late at night.