Hunt a paedophile with your mobile

Link: Sprint helps fuel parental panic | The Register

A story about paedophiles is usually to grab a huge amount of press coverage – particularly in the News Of the World, whos readers are renowned for suddenly turning from mild mannered law abiding citizens into full fledged bounty hunter vigilantes at the mere mention of the word.

Over in the US, Sprint have just launched a service called FamilyWatchdog Mobile, which allows parents to access details of their neighbourhood sex offenders from the comfort of their mobile. We’re talking maps of where they live and work, downloadable photographs, and conviction details. You can even sign up for a text alert service, which will drop you a friendly message when anyone known for asking kids if they want to see some puppies ships on in to the area.

 Tie this up with Family Locator, launched last month, and concerned parents can also keep tabs on their kids using the built-in GPS on compatible handsets.

When will something similar come to the UK? Not before a law change. Here in blighty there’s been a campaign, dubbed “Sarah’s Law”, to secure the right to know if a convicted sex offender is living in your area. It’s based partly on “Megan’s Law” in the US, which does exactly that. Sprint are not only using that freely available information, but they’re also sponsoring something called “America’s Most Wanted Safety Centre”, where concerned parents can submit questions about child safety by text message.