socialmedian: Bid to block paedophiles from Facebook fails

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Bid to block paedophiles from Facebook fails

Source: The Guardian

Nov 08, 2009

Summary

Government plan to stop sex offenders using social networking sites would breach human rights law

Government plans to block paedophiles from using social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace have been shelved because of fears that such a move would breach human rights laws.

The Home Office announced in April that it was taking steps to restrict registered sex offenders from accessing the internet sites used by millions of children every day. The new law would have applied to more than 30,000 sex offenders on the register. Failure to comply would have carried up to five years' imprisonment.

But it has now emerged that the Home Office has been forced to climb down amid concerns that the plan is incompatible with the right to privacy. There are fears that any move by the police to share the personal details and email addresses of registered sex offenders with the social networking sites would be open to legal challenges. The decision to shelve the new law followed a ruling by the Court of Appeal earlier this year. "We're seeking leave to appeal this decisi

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