Registered Sex Offenders Could Face Felony Conviction for FaceBook Profile

People who have been convicted of child sexual offenses could now face stiff penalties for having an active FaceBook account. It could be any social networking where there are a lot of children who could fall victim to a sex offender. The state of North Carolina has charged sex offender Timothy Howard Newman with a felony offense and violation of his parole terms for having a profile on the popular social networking site, FaceBook. Someone saw the FaceBook account and reported it to the police.

There are thousands of children who have profiles on this site and sites similar to it. Illinois has the same law. Sex offenders need to be aware that this is a law in many states and will likely be law in all of the states at some point. The premise of the law is that child sex offenders often use this type of venue to find new victims to attach themselves to. If they have the inability to use these forums, they will be less likely to be able to find a child to victimize again. Social networking sites make it easier for predators to find their victims, but the new laws make it hard again. Florida's law is that registered sex offenders must report that they have a FaceBook account.

After MySpace reported last year that they deleted over 90,000 sex offenders from their site, FaceBook was asked to remove registered sex offenders from their site as well. FaceBook claims to have removed those sex offenders since the time that they were asked to do so. It doesn't matter because if you were convicted of a sex crime and have been required to be registered as a sex offender, you are not legally allowed to have a FaceBook account. If caught, you will face stiff penalties and can then be convicted of another felony and go back to jail for violating parole.

It is important that sex offenders not be given a chance to find more victims via the internet. These new laws are part of a sweep to keep children safe but to also keep adults safe. The laws don't just cover child sex offenders but any sex offender. We have to also understand that being on the internet is a privilege, not a right. There is nothing under the constitution that says you have the right to be on the internet or to join certain sites. This can be put into the perspective that if you commit a felony offense in the United States, you lose the right to own a gun for the rest of your life. The same things holds true for joining social networking sites for registered sex offenders. You lose the right to certain freedoms that others have.

These laws are important in keeping people safe. There are arguments about whether this violates the constitution. It does not violate your constitutional rights. You have the rights that are afforded you in the constitution, but you have to abide by the laws in order to have those rights. There has to be some type of control when it comes to keeping people safe as possible. These laws are a good step towards that. It is still important that people are careful with their internet use. These laws don't cover anything but those who are registered sex offenders. You still have to make sure that you take caution and watch your children's online activities