International Law

Well this is an overreaction

In the UK, The Register reports that Faceparty has deleted most of its users over the age of 36 because it claims older users pose a danger of sex offending:

A social networking site has deleted most of its users over the age of 36 because it claims older users pose a danger of sex offending. It claims to be forced into the action by the Government, but the part of a law it cites is not yet in force.

Faceparty has deleted what it describes as "a huge number of accounts" from its social networking site in recent weeks. It lists 'over 36 years old' as one of its reasons for deletion.

"We understand that only a minority of older users are sex offenders, but you must understand that we cannot tell which," it says in its explanation of the deletion of accounts.

"New government legislation means we need to check older users on the sex offenders list," says its notice. "This legislation is based upon checking email addresses against a government provided list. Faceparty has never insisted on validated email addresses and can therefore not participate in this new scheme."

A new law was passed earlier this month, the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act, which contains provisions for the Secretary of State to require sex offenders to register their email addresses or other information. That, though, is not currently part of the law and would require a ministerial order to become law.

The law makes no reference to the age of offenders. Neither that law nor any other suggests that people over the age of 36 are more likely to be sex offenders.

"Having discussed the use of our website with the home office and the police, and further some pretty serious crimes caused by older users, we were left with no option but to terminate a huge amount of accounts, and without notice, immediately," says the notice.

Faceparty has defended itself against accusations that it is simply trying to create a younger, more valuable user base for itself.

"Despite malicious rumours spread by a few people on the website, it is not true that we have deleted members due to 'ageism'," its notice said.

Read more here.

Full post as published by Freedom to Differ on May 26, 2008 (boomark / email).