Rules Rules on Sex Offenders

It seems there is a legal consideration concerning whether we are allowed to bring information to Websleuths from the actual sex offender registry.

It is illegal to use the sex offender register information to harass anyone. We would never condone this at Websleuths.

It is not illegal (in my opinion) if when a child goes missing or is harmed we look at the sex offenders in the area and post their information, along with maps to show how close they live to the victim.

In every case we have local people reading and posting here. Therefore we are within the guidelines using this info for local information.

Again, we are not EVER going to even hint at harassing anyone on the sex offenders list. Any posting we do about a sex offender will always be within the law.

MommaD said:

Thank you Tricia .. For all you do at WS and that is for everyone also..

So if said missing child is found we can still post pics and info on RSO's ??? and if said missing child is harmed in anyway we can still post pics and info on RSO's ???

Thanks again...

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Yes, BUT, you have to use your common sense.

Although this sounds like a black and white question it is not really.

You can bring over the information found on the RSO site but if you start bringing over RSO's with absolutely no type of connection possible to the case then that would not be allowed. Again, kind of a grey area.

Let me also stress one more point:

You can bring over the info that is on the sex offender registry because it has all we need. Name, address, age, and offense.

Please DO NOT start digging up more info on the sex offender because you run the very high risk of naming innocent people who are, through no fault of their own, connected to this guy. Or, heaven forbid, you get into a search and all of a sudden you are looking up an innocent man with the same name as the perp and you inadvertently mix them up and before you know it, an innocent man's or woman's name is splashed out all over the Internet.

You have to be very careful when doing background searches. Just because it is public information does not give us the right to post it here on Websleuths.

Each situation is different and must be judged by the facts. Again, a very grey area.