Between the time that I wrote that last post about the Sex Offender Search Engine and the time I posted it*, I talked the topic over with a friend, and it occurred to me that there was, perhaps, another problem with the search engine in addition to the possibility of false negatives. Depending on how the system is set up, it may be possible for sex offenders to manipulate the system.

Let’s say that, despite the fact that I have no more than a dozen or so readers (on a very good day — most of the time, I wager I average closer to around three readers), I manage to offend someone who is on this registry. He gets angry, calls the state police and says, “Hey, I just wanted you guys to know… I just registered a new e-mail address. It’s RobinS at one stack mind dot com.” Do the state police then send one of those “Your e-mail address has been registered” notifications to me, or do they just add it straightaway?

On a small scale, this could be a very effective way for a sex offender to get even with someone who has made him angry. On a larger scale, it could be used to completely undermine the effectiveness of the system as it’s proposed.

*I saved this point for today mostly so that I could pad my post count for the month and make the calendar in the upper right look more full.