New caller id service

Here is a complaint about a new Caller ID service:

The service comes as bad news to advocates for domestic violence victims, who fought hard to make free blocking an option in the early days of Caller ID. "I have huge concerns about that,” says Cindy Southworth, director of technology at the National Network to End Domestic Violence, in Washington, D.C. Southworth fears that abusers will use the new service to locate partners fleeing a violent relationship. ...

The problem is serious, because domestic violence victims who've fled an abusive relationship often have to stay in contact with their abuser by phone, particularly in situations where the former couple share custody of their children,” Southworth says.

"The judge will require that the victim contact the offender to discuss where they’re dropping the children off, for example," says Southworth.

Someone is mixed up here. Caller ID just sends the caller's phone number, and not the address. If two parents share child-rearing responsibilities, then they need to be able to talk to each other. Caller ID just helps the other parent return a phone call, and does not give a location. Some phone numbers are listed with addresses in the phone book, but the caller can always use an unlisted number or a cell phone. Domestic violence is a non-issue.

A commenter writes:

If a battered wife wants to talk directly to her abusive husband, then she is absolutely stupid. Sorry. Battered wives should talk to abusive husband thru lawyers and police officers only. ...

Battered wives must be isolated from their abusers quickly, swiftly and irrevocably. If the system does not do that, they go back to him, many times because they think that they don't have marketable skills / enough money to raise the kids or to live, sometimes because religion tells them that they must cope with that, sometimes even because they were conditioned by the abuser to think they deserve to be beaten.

If she made it to the shelter, she calls 911 (999/190), the police gets her kids wherever they are, and they go thru the system. For the night, they don't stay with the abuser. She does not call him. Her lawyer/public defendant/the DA gets the abuser arrested, and the judge will see if it is enough a court order for him to be out of the house.

IN NO CIRCUMSTANCES should abuser and abused exchange words directly. If visitation is granted to him (normally after some time), the victim should arrange for other person (relative, neighbor) to deal with the exchanges of the kids, and should call 911 (etc) at once if the abuser disobeys any terms of custody and/or visitations, because he does not want to go to jail in contempt.

This is women's rights protection 101, ...

So women's rights consist of assuming that women are too stupid to decide who they want to talk to, and using the law to prevent them from calling their boyfriends? Weird.

At any rate, none of this should concern anyone. If you are concerned, just get a cell phone. If someone calls you back and you don't want to talk, then just don't answer the phone. It is that simple.