The KIDS Act

Proposal requires sex offenders to list e-mail, IM:

First, there was DOPA, then Ted “Tubes” Stevens introduced the Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act. Now we have yet another legislative proposal designed in the name of “keeping children safe” but really doesn’t do anything of the sort.

Rep. Earl Pomeroy of North Dakota has proposed the Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sexual Predators Act or KIDS Act because, as we all know, no proposal is effective unless it has a catchy acronym to go along with it.

If passed, the law would require just about any website that has users to cross-reference their user information with lists of registered sex offenders. In theory, that sounds like a great idea, but then again, so did Communism.

Of course, nothing stops an SO from using a fake e-mail address or the ones that haven’t been caught yet. Again, just more legislation designed to get votes but has no application in the real world.

Comments

One response to “The KIDS Act”

  1. David Avatar
    David

    Do they have ANY clue how much bandwidth/server capacity they would need in order to cross reference every user database on the Internet with Sex Offender Registries? Not only is this wildly impractical, but it has the added benefit of not keeping kids any safer too!

    I should add that I think it’s interesting how many people realize that laws like this would be completely ineffective in combatting predators, yet we still have sex offender registries which have not been proven to do ANYTHING to protect children (or anyone else for that matter).

    Really, any law can be passed to “Protect the Children”. If enough fear is generated, politicians are able to “save” us from all manner of evil and danger.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *