As of tomorrow, sex offenders in Georgia will be subject to a new law that requires them to register their online accounts and passwords with the state government.
From the article:
“State Sen. Cecil Staton, who wrote the bill, said the measure is designed to keep the Internet safe for children. Authorities could use the passwords and other information to make sure offenders aren’t stalking children online or chatting with them about off-limits topics.
Staton said although the measure may violate the privacy of sex offenders, the need to protect children “outweighs a lot of the rights of these individuals.””
What. The. Hell.
For one thing, I continue to be disturbed by the ease with which government and the media manage to conflate “sex offender” with “child molester”. This means that someone with a public urination charge on their record could have their email monitored in order to “protect children”. A minority of sex offenders have a history of child molestation, but so far as the grandstanding buffoons in government are concerned, they all do.
Second, to ask something I know I’ve asked on here before, why are sex offenders the only people who are tracked and vilified like this after they’re paid for their crimes? I’d really like to know if there are any convicted burglars in my neighborhood, but there’s no registry for that. It sure would be handy if I could find out whether my neighbor beat someone to death with a rake twenty years ago, but that would be a violation of his privacy. But if someone across the street got caught having sex in a car, they’d be marked for life and subject to this sort of scarlet letter legislation.
“The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one’s time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.” – H L Mencken