The author of this article, Larry Magid, argues that the newly-passed Illinois state law which bans sex offenders from accessing information on social networking sites might actually do more harm than good.
For example, he points out that the audience which this law is trying to target, namely people who use the internet to contact children and then from there make attempts to sexually exploit them, actually very rarely succeeds in their endeavors. He goes on to say that in cases when there was sexual contact between an adult and a minor, it was more often than not the child who was actively seeking the contact. He also brought up the fact that not everyone who is forced to register as a sex offender is actually a child-molesting monster. Many people are on the list for things like urinating in public, and engaging in consensual sex with a fellow minor.
Although I believe that it's better to be safe than sorry, I would have to agree with Magid. I believe that once you serve the required punishment for a crime you commit, you should be free to go on with your life in any (legal) way that you see fit. This law hinders that freedom, and I don't think it's fair.
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