Well this is an overreaction
Peter Black’s Freedom to Differ:
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…