MySpace sought the help of Sentinal, a security technology form to kick about 90,000 sex offenders from its site. Now the blogsophere is abuzz with arguments about where these sex offenders went. The answers seem to point an accusing finger at Facebook, which is seeing a renewed growth in the U.S. Whether sex offenders are on Facebook or if they managed to open new accounts on Facebook after being chucked out from MySpace is a different question altogether.

What troubles me is that most of the listed sex offenders are not exactly continuous sex offenders. It is easy to get the tag of a sex offender after being prosecuted. However, there are many criteria for a person to be psychologically termed a ‘sex offender’. In fact, the very terminology tramples upon the basic human rights.

Of course, any kind of sexual offence has to be dealt with severely. But, blacklisting them for a lifetime and treating them like eternal criminals serves no possible good and might actually aggravate the issue of sexual offences. The issue of handling sexual offenders is a touchy issue, and critical too. Recklessly castigating the offenders for a lifetime is not going to keep our children safe online.

I certainly cannot offer solutions at a stage like this but measured vigilance of online activity of both sex offenders and under aged people seems to be a better idea. Social networking sites are also used to stay in touch with the family, find employment, and just socialize. Even an offender who has served his or her time needs these things in life. Online vigilance seems to be the only solution I can suggest.

Via: TechCrunch