Due to a new bill recently signed into law by Acting Gov. Richard Codey some New Jersey sex offenders are finding themselves completely banned from computers and cut off from the internet. Bill S1979 prohibits convicted sex offenders who used a computer to commit their crime from using computers or accessing the internet during at least part of their parole. It also gives the state the ability to restrict internet use to convicted sex offenders even if they did not use the internet to commit a sex offense.

The new law requires convicted individuals on parole to inform authorities of any devices they have access to which can access the internet, and authorities can make unannounced visits to homes of parolees to inspect computers and install monitoring devices.

“Hopefully this law will help a lot of parents sleep easier at night.” said Gov. Codey. In our opinion this might help cut down on the use of computers for sex-related offenses but short of implanting some sort of internet authentication chip in everybody’s neck it is pretty difficult these days to cut someone off completely from the internet. People can access the internet through hand-held devices, public internet cafés or even a hidden laptop that they choose not to tell the authorities about connected to the internet through a public hotspot or neighbors open Wi-Fi.

There isn’t currently any nation-wide federal law restricted sex offenders from the internet, and New Jersey joins Florida and Nevada and the only three states currently imposing a law of this type.

via Information Week