John Reid
Tuesday 6th February, 2007 10:47 Comments: 0
Home Secretary John Reid said he was considering requiring sex offenders to register their email addresses and chat room handles. Anyone that knows anything about the internet knows that it only takes a couple minutes to get a new email address (that's how long it just took me to quickly register seehowlongittookme@hotmail.co.uk), and you can typically pick almost any chat room handle you like. A different one every time, if you wish. The Home Office said any concrete plan would mean penalties for registered sex offenders who did not keep authorities up to date with their online identity. What exactly would/could they do if someone submitted something like "Katie12" as an online identity? It's not a crime to have a name like that, even if it is creepy and suggests disturbing behaviour.
Perhaps they should work on a way of keeping track of sex offenders that change their name to avoid detection first. In 2002, the Home Office said it had undertaken to look at the issue of deed polls with a view to legislation as soon as possible. After criticism of inaction more than four years on, it says a comprehensive and thorough review of child sex offenders - commissioned last June - is continuing.
EDIT: I've just read that John Reid has also ordered work to be carried out on the feasibility of an online alarm system. This would notify police every time a convicted paedophile used registered details to log on to an internet chatroom, or any other site which could be used to "groom" victims. This sounds like a technical nightmare to me, impossible to implement, there are just too many chatrooms across the world (and too many proxies to hide behind). I can write the feasibility study for them: impractical and ultimately flawed, so don't bother.
EDIT 2: Regarding the recent convicton of 3 men that planned on raping two underage sisters, Detective Constable Dave Adams, of the Met's child abuse investigation command, said: "This case should act as a really stark warning that the internet is not a hiding place to plan and participate in criminal acts."
Can I point out that the police only confiscated the men's PCs and performed computer forensics on them after one of the convicted men told the police about the plot. If it hadn't been for the man with a guilty conscience, it sounds like they wouldn't have had a clue!
Perhaps they should work on a way of keeping track of sex offenders that change their name to avoid detection first. In 2002, the Home Office said it had undertaken to look at the issue of deed polls with a view to legislation as soon as possible. After criticism of inaction more than four years on, it says a comprehensive and thorough review of child sex offenders - commissioned last June - is continuing.
EDIT: I've just read that John Reid has also ordered work to be carried out on the feasibility of an online alarm system. This would notify police every time a convicted paedophile used registered details to log on to an internet chatroom, or any other site which could be used to "groom" victims. This sounds like a technical nightmare to me, impossible to implement, there are just too many chatrooms across the world (and too many proxies to hide behind). I can write the feasibility study for them: impractical and ultimately flawed, so don't bother.
EDIT 2: Regarding the recent convicton of 3 men that planned on raping two underage sisters, Detective Constable Dave Adams, of the Met's child abuse investigation command, said: "This case should act as a really stark warning that the internet is not a hiding place to plan and participate in criminal acts."
Can I point out that the police only confiscated the men's PCs and performed computer forensics on them after one of the convicted men told the police about the plot. If it hadn't been for the man with a guilty conscience, it sounds like they wouldn't have had a clue!