Thanks to Doug Berman for surfacing this new product, WatchOut!, an iPhone app which allows phone owners to search for sex offenders wherever they are. The product press release is here. From the press release:
The WatchOut! application features an easy-to-use interface that enables users to identify dangers around them by searching for registered sex offenders by zip code or by name. The program also allows the user to determine where the highest concentrations of offenders live by plotting the locations on a map. The WatchOut! application is perfect for parents of young children, people who are planning to move to a new area, those who are in the dating scene and anyone else who is interested in knowing who is nearby in order to be safer.
I just don't know where to start! Let's make a list:
1. Commodification of Fear. There is a genuine place for some safety-related products (though it's unclear why vast suburban communities with trace burglary levels and understressed police departments are required to invest millions of dollars in ADT monitoring), but this product is truly attempting to monetize fear at a new level.
2. Creating new Fear. If it becomes in vogue to constantly monitor sex offender levels wherever you are, this could create the sense that there is some sort of crisis level of sex offenses. This seems like a great way to create an anxiety cascade. And I'm sure this little app won't provide you with crucial information such as the fact that many, and perhaps most, of these offenders victimized friends and family.
3. Turning Sex Offender Searches Into Fun. I guess the converse of my prior comment is that this could actually trivialize the search for sex offenders, turning it into a fun little iPhone game you play when you're bored. Perhaps the whole thing is a joke product, like plastic poop. Look at the attached image - the actual picture from the iTunes product page. What's with the weird face and the halo? In some respects, this product is offensive because it trivializes the problem that Megan's Laws were designed to address.
4. Product Extensions? Will they come up with picture recognition software that allows you to photograph your blind date and run his image through sex offender databases during cocktails?Perhaps in a similar vein, this company should market an STD mapping device: if you're dating someone from any area with high rates of STD's, then you really must wear a jimmy-hat.
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