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| Sex-Offender 'Name and Shame' Website Controversial |
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"Girls, let's unite and fight against wolves till the end" is the slogan of a newly-opened anti sex-offender website. In order to raise awareness among females, the website encourages netizens to post the name and photo of any sexual harassers they have discovered. Of course, doing such thing has aroused controversy. The website's most important feature is the list of sexual harassers compiled by website members. The founder of the website, whose online name is Caspar, says her original idea for opening the site was to raise awareness of the need for self-protection among females, following sexual harassment of one of her female friends. By naming and shaming them online, Caspar says there will be nowhere for these sex maniacs to hide. For example, one post saying that a teacher at a famous university in Shanghai raped several students has generated a great deal of response from the website's visitors. Besides voices of indignation, many also express suspicion. The website's weakness is that it cannot guarantee the truthfulness of its claims. Furthemore, lawyer Qiu Baochang says websites should not be able to publicize other people's personal information without permission. "To post others' detailed personal information is not within the rights of a website. So a website like the anti-sex-offender alliance could be found in violation of others' basic rights." If the website cannot guarantee that all information posted is true, it will be partly responsible for the infringement of rights. Though its original intention is to protect women's rights, at the same time, the website violates the rights of another group of people. The website contains vastly opposing views. "If the law hasn't been able to regulate these sex offenders, I think exposing them to the public is good way to make them feel guilty and see there is nowhere to hide." "Though these people are offensive, I don't think posting their names or photos online is a good solution, because it violates their right to privacy and ruins their reputation." According to the website founder, the site's ultimate goal is to collect information on 500 sexual offenders from netizens and then send it to related legal departments. While with very few posts providing detailed and true information, it will almost be impossible for the website to achieve its original goal. (CRI November 8, 2006) |
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