Legislating Goes Social: Bills Would Address Web Posts
When Democratic state Rep. Helen Giddings entered the Texas Legislature in 1992, no one had heard of social media. In fact, few people owned personal computers, and cell phones were just coming of age.
With the emergence of new technology, legislators have filed a bevy of bills that could change the way some Texans use social media. The measures largely stem from lawmakers' concerns about privacy and safety for Texans who spend an increasingly large portion of their lives online.
“This whole social media phenomenon is so new that as we go along we have to set up these new ...
Comments (4)
Andrew Goldberg via Texas Tribune on Facebook
social media should be considered private speech unless otherwise noted by the speaker...like a real conversation, but with a record
Shelly Stow
In an attempt to justify this bill, Rep. Fischer said, ""We want to make sure that we are protecting our young and vulnerable." It worries me a bit that a legislator whose salary our taxes pay does not even do the homework required before filing a bill. If he had, he would know that risk of sexual harm comes to minors from people in their lives, even over the Internet, and not from someone on the registry.
According to a study conducted by Harvard University , minors identified about 48 percent of sexual solicitors as being other adolescents, and only 4 percent to 9 percent being adults older than 21. The study found that 44 percent of Internet-initiated sex crimes were committed by family members, and 56 percent were committed by people known to the victim offline.
“In other words,” the study states, “the threat of Internet-initiated sex crimes committed by strangers appears to be extremely exaggerated.”.
To actually help protect children and minors from sexual abuse, Rep. Fischer would do better to advocate the spending of our scant resources where they have a chance of accomplishing the purpose: education and awareness programs in schools and communities, victim and family services, and meaningful rehabilitation and reentry programs for those who have already offended.
adam ofive
Fischer states that failing to put your sex offender status online would cause your probation to be revocated. What about those that are no longer on Probation? What about those citizens that made one mistake, and have been attempting to go back to a normal existence yet are hounded by these stupid lawmakers and the stupid laws they create? How much more blood do the states want from former offenders?
When I see the Drunk Driver Registry, or the Murderers Registry, THEN we can talk about public safety. Until then, the elected officials are only attempting to pander for votes.
Juanita Roussin
Legislators need to make themselves more aware of the broader consequences of these laws. The difficulty of returning to normal existence after being identified as a "sex offender" is well documented. The physical danger to families of offenders on this registry is very real and sad. The number of children in the families that grow up sigmatized by society is growing daily. And many of the offenders are children themselves for whom the chance of a productive life is forever destroyed. How does this effect the public? These laws are so broad that anyone's child may be caught up in them. The public and the legislators see them as "the worst of criminals and untreatable child molesters; yet reliable statistics and research studies have shown that recivitism is low; many if not most never touched a child; and most children who are molested are molseted by a family member or close family friend. Both the public AND the legislators need education on the research and the ways THEY need to protect their children and ours from being caught up in this nightmare. About 110 Texas families PER WEEK experience a member being required to register and lose protection and constitutional rights. Almost 40% are underage children and no one is immune as a legislator and his family recently discovered. I challenge you to do the research.