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© KYODOJapan to create database to prevent sexual predators from babysitting
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Mickelicious
This is a start, but are just babysitters included, or are all other occupations (home tutors, etc., etc.) too? Is the sex offending limited to paedophilia or all flavours in scope?
Great precedent, though. Don't make it 中途半端。
sakurasuki
This database for sure can protect children from those people. If this kind of database can be made, why database of black companies including its violation can not be made officially?
Japan want more for population but even an existing families that really need, current nursery can not handle that?
Sal Affist
Once they create this, they will find it in demand in many other fields. But the limitation is that it will only cover those convicted in a court of sexual assault. Many such crimes are settled out of court as the perpetrator pays off the victim or the victim's family, and the prosecutor then doesn't proceed to a judgment. So it will not cover all the sexual assault offenses that are actually charged in Japan.
serendipitous1
One would hope they mean such a predator could 'simply move to another city' after they've been in prison for 20 years......but probably not.
ishel
There is scope for this to be made much more proactive. Australia has a system of 'Working with Children' registration, and anyone wanting to work with children in any capacity has to obtain such a registration. That is withdrawn if the holder is ever convicted of various relevant offences. Of course, any such system can never prevent the first offence, but having a national registration makes it easy for everyone.
Sven Asai
Yes, why not create 120,000,000 databases, so that everyone finds himself in a personal fitting blacklist? lol
David Michael Lockard
Technology won't substitute moral behaviour. Unfortunately.
I am supportive of the database however and If the society can be trusted the information belongs to the public.
tmarie
And yet still nothing for school teachers, juku tutors, coaches... Anyone can legally change their name here. Why criminal background checks are not required here to work with kids is beyond me.
Mark
About 25 years behind most industrial nations, and it should also include SCHOOL TEACHERS.
JJ Jetplane
Tare this a step further and include teachers.
Luddite
They should be doing this for anyone who works with children or vulnerable adults.
starpunk
They should be doing this for everybody, and I mean everybody who works with children in any capacity whatsoever. Teachers, social workers, clergy, substitute teachers, education degree interns, ALL.
It's been too easy for offenders to get away with sexual offenses and the worst part of it all is that children are too ignorant, unknowing, shocked into fear and too young to know what the hell is going on and the effects (at least psychologically) can be everlasting. Any way to reduce the trauma and occurance of this sickening crime is a step up.
proxy
@starpunk The problem is that virtually everyone has the same first name, last name, year of birth, month of birth, day of birth, home town, education affiliation, or former city of residence as somebody who has been accused of abuse. Checking police records results in virtually everyone being flagged so the next step will be checking fingerprints which seems like a reasonable approach but in the end when parents are needed to volunteer at the school to set up tents for undokai nobody has the time or energy to go through the process of a police background check and fingerprinting so people tend to just sleep in for an extra hour.
Probably better to make abusers live under a bridge like they do in Florida or send them to a small island where there are no other humans.
Ah_so
You can generally say that about almost everything in Japan.
Zack
it should include other jobs as well. like teaching (schools, universities, driving,...) healthcare (doctors, clinic assistance,...) customer care,..
basically any job in which there is a chance for one on one interaction
David Michael Lockard
No problem here, personally, let's round um all up and do the check. :)
starpunk
These databases don't match just one variable alone. The chances of two people who share all the exact variables used in a database for matching are practically nil.
For instance, look at some 'common names' like 'Phil Collins'. There's the famous short white Briton rocker and I knew a 'Phil Collins' at my last Navy command in California who was a 6' tall black American.
There's the Brit rocker Sir Michael Philip Jagger of the Rolling Stones and then there's the acclaimed Austrian astronomer/astrophotographer Michael Jaeger.
When the police are looking for a suspect or offender, all the variables have to match and with the number of factors used, you will never find two that match exactly in everything.
egads man!
All sex offenders should be registered in a database whether they're child molesters or rapists. Neighborhoods should have the right to know about these predators living among them.
starpunk
That's what they do in America and they cannot live within a certain distance of schools or where kids go to en masse.
You don't. Computers can hold much more information with more detail too. Computers and information storage makes it easier now, you don't need to have it all written down.
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