491S Blog Post W/E 3/407 (Makeup from Last Week)

"Law Weighed to Stop Online Predators"

It is no secret that the internet has made the world a less safer place for children. There are people out there who use it for nothing more than to abuse children. However, this was not was it was intended for and I think articles such as this show how sometimes that is forgotten. Obviously, there is not one sane-minded person who thinks that predators should be allowed to talk to children. This proposed law, however, is extremely over-reaching:

"Released sex offenders caught using the Internet would face up to 18 months in jail and fines of up to $10,000"

WHAT? Though the crime is despicable, you are going to disallow a whole class of people from using the internet. By doing this, the group is cut off from the fastest form of information available. This law would, in a way, cut these people off from the world. This is such a curtailing of individual autonomy. Furthermore, once you deny a certain group rights to the internet, the concern of a slippery slope arises. What other groups can be denied access. When one views how integral the internet has become to everyday life, this idea seems preposterous

It reminded me slightly of the case of Skinner v. State of Oklahoma in that the government is once again intending to make impotent the criminals who committed a crime. In Skinner the government intended to do this physically, while this time it would be metaphorically. The irony of the decision in Skinner was that this law violated the Equal Protection clause because it left out white-collar criminals. The same is true about the New Jersey law. What about people who insider trade solely on the internet, should they also be denied internet rights?

Again, no one wants predators to harm children, but isn't there are better way to accomplish this?