Squashed

So, MySpace has kicked off the sex offenders. Will Facebook follow? It’s hard to show a lot of public sympathy for registered sex offenders—but the label is pretty broad and it doesn’t really go away. Maybe some college guy has too much to drink and goes streaking through the soccer field near campus. Maybe some kids happened to be having soccer practice at the time. Oops. So that was dumb—and he pleads guilty to whatever, because he did indeed do something dumb. He pays a fine. And he’s now a sex offender, which means ostracization. And as invitations to events and things are increassingly sent through Facebook, it means he’s likely to miss out on a lot. Now, the government could’t pass a law that says nobody is permitted to invite sex offenders to parties—but Facebook is a private company, to an extent, it can do whatever it wants.