This is absolute bounder dash, nonsense, social networking sites ARE NOT OWNED by children nor are they designed ONLY for minors. The law is over-breadth, if anything, states should force social networking sites to build in blocking mechanisms for minor accounts.2-12-2011 North Carolina:
DURHAM -- A second man among eight sex offenders charged last summer with participating in Facebook or Myspace pleaded guilty Friday, but two others will fight the charges next week, calling the law unconstitutional.
A state law passed in 2008 prevents registered sex offenders from maintaining accounts on commercial social networking sites. On Friday, Raquim Watson, 23, pleaded guilty to violating that law and will serve 18 months' probation. In 2008, he was sentenced to two years' probation for taking indecent liberties with a 14-year-old girl in Rowan County when he was 19.
With his latest charge resolved, Watson can return to N.C. Central University, his attorney Matt Cook said.
Another former NCCU student, Brandon Whitehurst, 22, will be in prison until this summer because his guilty plea on the social networking charge yielded him a probation violation on a prior incest conviction, resulting in a 16-month prison sentence.
So far, only Whitehurst and Watson have resolved their cyber-crimes. Two other defendants, Christian Johnson and Lester Packingham, are fighting a law they say violates their constitutional rights.
"The regulation does not just keep a registered sex offender from engaging in obscene speech with a minor," wrote Johnson's lawyer, Glenn Gerding of Chapel Hill, in a motion filed in December. "It prohibits any and all speech, however innocent, even if it's a religious conversation between the offender and his priest, or a discussion of family matters between the offender and his mother."
A judge is to hear the attorneys' motions next week. ..Source.. by JESSE JAMES DECONTO - Staff Writer
No comments:
Post a Comment