In an interesting move by the Texas legislature, sex offenders may be required to register their online identities with the state, according to this article at Kotaku. While it (intelligently) doesn’t explicitly mention Xbox Live or the PSN, it’s clear that they’re talking about services like that or AIM. The bill, if passed, could even be extended to restrict sex offenders from even having identities on social networking sites altogether.
It’s a bizarre move by the government to limit freedoms, but then again it’s to convicted sex offenders. I’m no lawyer, but I’m not sure how the constitution falls on this topic and I predict that if Texas does pass this into law, it will quickly be challenged as high as it can go. Not that I don’t support vigilance with respect to sex offenders, but it just seems a little too big brother-y to not let you use a social networking site, since the government doesn’t have control of those. Not allowing you to teach or work with kids is a smart, good thing, but cutting you off from the (if the trend continues) vein of modern society seems harsh. I do support registration of online identities though, since it’s really no different than publishing on those websites where they all live like in Knocked Up.
Leave a Reply