NYS to Sex Offenders: You Have No Civil Liberties

Posted at 11:44 AM May 16, 2008

New York State Governor David Paterson signed the e-STOP (Electronic Security and Targeting of Online Predators) bill into law this week, theoretically making the internet a safer playground for children. The new law requires convicted sex offenders to register any screen names with the state, and grants social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace access to these screen names. The state must be notified of any changes within 10 days. For a sexual offender, there is apparently no such thing as having paid a debt to society.

Certainly, the internet has enabled sexual predators access to potential victims in a totally new way that is much more terrifying than the man in a van with a bag of candy that was the portrait of a predator in the days of yore. Yes, sexual predators use the internet to contact and court children who they don't know in real life. However, the intense focus on "stranger danger" is not so helpful.

93% of juvenile sexual assault victims know their attacker (see more statistics about victims of sexual assault, via the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network). But we don't hear about the experiences of those 93% in the mainstream media. Attempting to protect children from the dangers out there is infinitely easier for people to get behind.

Hopefully there will be studies done that track recidivism rates and their relationship to access to the internet - where, by the way, there are also many powerful support groups for people who have been perpetrators of sexual abuse and violence.

--Audacia Ray

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