New Jersey enacts law limiting sex offenders' Internet use

New Jersey sex offenders' Internet use can be sharply curtailed under a new law enacted Thursday.

The new measure, signed into law by Acting Governor Richard J. Codey, D-West Orange, bars convicted sex offenders -- who used the Internet to commit their crimes -- from going online unless it relates to their job or to finding a new job.

The new law, which goes into effect in 60 days, also gives the state broad authority to impose similar restrictions on other, high-risk sex offenders who are permanently tracked by parole officers.

Supporters cautioned that the new law is not a fool-proof panacea, since libraries, Internet cafes and cell phones with online services still give sex offenders opportunities to use the Internet anonymously. Still, Codey, the Senate president who is filling in as acting governor while Governor Corzine is out of the country and on vacation, said the new law maintains New Jersey’s role as a national leader in the protection of children against sexual predators.

“Every day we hear another horror story about some unsavory character using the Internet to prey on our children,” Codey said during a morning bill signing ceremony at New Jersey State Police headquarters in West Trenton. “This legislation will give us some of the toughest tools in the nation.”

The new law supplements New Jersey’s Megan’s Law restrictions, which require law enforcement officials to notify residents when a convicted sex offender moves into a neighborhood. The law, enacted in 1994, is named after Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old girl who was raped and murdered by a twice-convicted sex offender who lived on her street in Hamilton Township, a suburb of Trenton.

Only two other states, Florida and Nevada, already restrict the Internet use of convicted sex offenders.

“This is landmark legislation,” said state Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein, a Democrat from Mercer County who represent Hamilton Township.

The new law will give judges the authority to impose a sentence that bars convicted sex offenders from using computers or any other devices to go online for any reason not related to their job or finding a new job upon their release from prison.

It also gives state law enforcement officials the authority to monitor the Internet usage of other convicted sex offenders who are considered a risk to commit another offense.

Sex offenders caught violating the new law would face penalties of up to 18 months in jail and those caught using the Internet in attempt to commit another sex crime would face up to five years in prison.

Codey introduced the legislation in 2006 and it passed unanimously in both the Assembly and Senate earlier this month.