A new law recently enacted in New Jersey now prohibits sex offenders in that state from gaining access to the Internet unless necessary for their employment or while performing job searches.

“We live in scary times,” Acting Gov. Richard J. Codey said before signing the bill he sponsored in the state Senate. “Parents have to worry about people preying on their kids even while they’re in the safety of their own homes.”

Not if you paid attention to your kids and taught them of the dangers, as well as monitoring their own activities, which is what a parent should be doing anyway.

Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein, D-Mercer, said the new law, which she co-sponsored, provides a needed update to Megan’s Law, which requires sex offenders to register with the state after being released from prison.

Ah, yes, because completing a prison sentence no longer means you are rehabilitated and safe to society.  When you are released from prison, you have done your time and are no longer a danger to others in society.  Now, however, law makers have amended that to, “We let you out but we still don’t trust you.”  If the prisoner is not safe to be released back into society, then why let them go?

“When Megan’s Law was enacted, few could envision a day when a sex offender hiding behind a fake screen name would be a mouse-click away from new and unwitting victims,”

Uh, anyone with a brain knew about anonymity online and that there was potential abuses of that happening.  Just because law makers put their heads into the sand doesn’t mean the dangers went away.  By ignoring the problem, they allowed an entire generation of children to grow up without the necessary education that is required for being on the Internet.

The state Parole Board currently supervises about 4,200 paroled sex offenders whose sentencing guidelines call for lifetime supervision – regardless of whether their original involved the Internet. The board last month approved new rules banning those convicts from using Internet social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

Yes, because social networking sites are the only places online where sex offenders and children hang out.

There are those that say this is a good law, however, they aren’t looking at the bigger picture.  If you completely restrict sex offenders from going anywhere near a place that a child might be, where are they to go other than their own homes?  Once this law is enforced upon sex offenders, it is likely that other criminals will also be added to the list.

Several of the current sex offenders affected by this law never used the Internet to commit their crimes, yet, because of the lack of foresight amongst lawmakers, they are subject to the same ban.

Bill S1979 gives the state broad authority to regulate a sex offender’s computer and Internet usage so long as the person remains on parole. And the law is tough: anyone who uses a computer to help commit sex crimes will be prohibited from using computers or the Internet at all. The State Parole Board may also impose restrictions at its discretion on offenders even if they did not use computers to plan their crimes.

So, once your time on parole is done, you can still go get your computer, hook up to the Internet and tell the New Jersey law makers to shove it.  This is yet more legislation that isn’t entirely well thought out.

This law will only make stupid parents sleep easier at night.  Knowledgeable parents will know that this does little to protect their children.  It merely appeases those who believe in false senses of security.