First Amendment Rights Research Paper

7) Facebook and sexual offenders The First Amendment protects the right of citizens to their freedom of speech. There are ways that those freedoms can be taken away. Limitations to this law can be at the work place, when something obscene is said, threats and many others. One way your rights can be limited is when you are convicted as a felon. You often loose many of the rights as a felon, including the right of the second amendment to own a gun. Lester Packingham was convicted as a sexual offender in 2002. He was caught using a Facebook in North Carolina. In North Carolina there is a law to prevent sexual offenders from being on sites like Facebook and other social media sites that minors use. Packingham believes this to be a violation to his First Amendment rights. However, in the case of Packingham there is a government interest to limit his First Amendment right. Social Media has become very popular due to the growth of technology and the ability to use our phones as computers. Social Media is a place that young teens and adults use to connect to friends and family. Yet many people have been caught trying to use sites like this to …show more content…
In order to make sure they are not baited by adults the North Carolina law was made. While North Carolina could try to just keep an eye on them with their user name and password there are thousands on the registry. The amount would be way too large for the government of North Carolina to monitor. The idea behind this law seems very influenced like Deontology. The law has a motive to protect children and expects people to be rational. The law does not allow people to treat friends or family differently. If they are an offender, then they cannot use social media. The law tires to make sure that humans are able to flourish and the minors are able to grow. This is part of the natural rights we have as humans and therefore needs to be protected by legal