Texas Bill Might Require Sex Offenders To Register Online IDs
From G4: A bill that passed the Texas Senate today would change sex offender
registration regulations in the state so convicted sex offenders would
have to provide law enforcement with each “alias, assumed name,
nickname, or pseudonym, including a screen name, used by the person.”
Presumably, the law includes gamer tags, twitter user names, MySpace
names, and other public online identifiers– including IDs on ComicMix.
The additional information would not be made public but would be
available to law enforcement and social-networking sites, and
presumably, video game companies. This gives companies the ability
reject people from joining based on their inclusion on the list. The
bill, introduced by Sen. Florence Shapiro, is headed to a vote by the
Texas House… and should it pass, the governor’s desk.
Chicago attorney and video gamer Wesley Johnson said, “It appears
this law would apply to gamer tags, although the final definition of
what’s covered in the law is up to the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice.” Here’s the Full Text of the Bill.
Like Mike Diana hasn’t had enough grief in his life.
Hat tip: Frank Meyer.
Another reason to *not* live in Texas.Speaking as a non-sex-offendor (well, excepting certain consensual acts covered by law in someof the more unenlightened areas), i find this morally repulsive.But, then again, i find most curtailments of the right to privacy repulsive.And the rest i find intolerable.
Plus, if you look at the people who regularly go after actual predators (www.vachss.com for example) one point that they make is that sex offender registeries are "feel good" methods that *don't work* and take time, money and resources away from methods that *are* helpful (such as pushing for better sentencing requirements, and funded parole follow ups.)