Hang around parks and street corners I suppose.

I suspect this will not survive court challenge. The internet touches too many aspects of our lives. Not allowing any use except for a few exceptions essentially bars a person from participation in the culture at large. They will have to find another way to deal with this problem.

No problem: most kids are indoors stuffing their faces with pies and playing on games consoles (possibly at the same time).

I choose the penguin as my edible icon.

That to get on that list all you have to do is take a leak behind a bush and a woman sees you and calls the police.

* delete as appropriate

So which is it then, are they banned from just the web, or the whole Internet?

How is this going to be policed? The only suggestion is that the police will do spot checks on your PC. Who's to say that they may not declare that they have equiptment or subsequently buy it after the ban and use one of the many WiFi spots in the USA. Also, does this cover mobile (cell to our american friends) phones? Daft. I once read an American court case where a hacker was ordered by the judge that he was not allowed to be with 50 yards of a modem at anyone time... yes ANY modem. Daft!!!!

I suspect it is unreasonable breach of right to free speech.

@Unworkable: it is daft, but with the super-dooper wireless modems nowadays I can be in my nearest pub and still get a connection from home :-)

You can thank our culture of fear for this current persecution of sex offenders. There's no other criminal aspect in this country which we fear anymore. Gangs petered out, the mafia is non-existent, serial killers are just about a work of fiction, and school shootings only apply to a small subsection of the population and are being dealt with by the anti-gun crowd. So what is there really to fear?

Sex offenders, bam! Used to be child molesters and rapists were the only ones caught under that moniker - but now it's an umbrella term used to capture everyone who does just about anything that this society of yuppies and self-important blow-hards finds unpleasant. Pissed on a wall? Sex offender. Moon your neighbor? Sex offender. Have sex in your own home? Sex offender. Get a blowjob in your car in the middle of the night in an area where no one could possibly see, even if you're two adults of consenting again? Sex offender. Pass out drunk in the front lawn and your friends strip you naked as a joke? Sex offender. For you geeky types, have cybersex with an underage girl who said she was of age? Sex offender. E-mail nude pictures to said girl? Sex offender. Have sex in a theater? Sex offender. Be more than x years apart when you're underage and have sex? Sex offender. Have sex when one person is 18 and the other 17 in certain states? Sex offender. Look at Traci Lords porn? Sex offender. Project pornography into your neighbor's house because they're always up late throwing wild parties? Sex offender. Have sex with someone in a pool or get blown in a jacuzzi? Sex offender.

This country has always had a penchant for persecuting anything anyone finds unpleasant. Political correctness has always existed, it just never had a name before. Ever since the hippies' kids came 'into power' the yuppies have been trying to round every jagged edge in this country, often pressuring congress or local governments into enacting incredibly un-constitutional and illegal legislation.

No one speaks out against it because in this country's fucked up logic any defense of social pariahs always ends up being spun so severely that you'll eventually come out looking like a child-molesting drunk-driving serial killing rapist lunatic. Someone needs to step up to the plate, though, and fight the good fight. When they do, those of us who find these pieces of legislation appalling need to back him up with more than just words on a website.

Perhaps that's the reason nobody bothers trying anymore, it's much easier to pander to the special interests who have the money or the motivation to fight the long fight. I'm sure there are enough voters out there who want to lower the 21 drinking age by removing the highway act, but they're all probably too much. I'm sure there are enough voters out there who want to legalize marijuana, but they're all probably too stoned. Plus, people do both anyway. And if those two hot button topics are two of the more important aspects that garner votes yet still fail to make any impression on legislators then how are we to expect society to stand up for those that even people who ARE concerned about the constitutionality of laws can't be arsed to do so? We can't.

It's much easier to get up in arms and convince the masses that you're right when you're using someone close to you as a martyr. Most often, it's a child. Mothers' protecting their children from the evils of whateverthefuck. Failed byproduct of the sexual revolution that weren't able to make their mark elsewhere in society and so instead make it through legislators. Sickeningly abusing their position as someone who's lost an important figure in their life. Again, most often, it's a child. They're cute, innocent, and never know better, ripe for the plucking. Accosted by sex offenders, drunk drivers and gun toting maniacs the world over.

Whatever would we do in this world without mothers? A mothers love never ends and knows no bounds. What is it they say about having children, again? Oh, right. The act of birth destroys the logic center in your brain and you cease to be a functional, productive member of society because somehow, someway, having a child makes you an expert on everything that is never wrong, ever.

I think this is best proved by that news clip of the woman saying "As a mother, I know all about terrorists..." or on Penn & Teller's bullshit, interviewing future mothers on college campuses on whether or not they'd like to *end* women's suffrage with every response except one being yes.

"The Vagina Monologues" is proof that giving women the right to vote was certainly the worst thing to happen to this country in the last century.

First might I suggest that some of you actually read the article - this will apply to people who used the internet in their crimes so were talking pedophiles, date rapists etc. here not people pissing in public or mooning the filth.

Second to the people saying they've done their time leave them alone etc - If this is part of their punishment they have not 'done their time' but are still serving their punishment.

Lastly who cares - if you've set up a child porn site, or raped the date you met on craigslist then we don't want you on the net! This seems to me to be entirely appropriate - and this punishment has been used previously for hacking (a far less serious crime).

Oh and to the person talking about a ban on buying alcohol after a DUI... Nice try but have you never heard of driving bans, seems very similar to me...

"First might I suggest that some of you actually read the article - this will apply to people who used the internet in their crimes so were talking pedophiles, date rapists etc. here not people pissing in public or mooning the filth." - this is your list of crimes not theirs. I suggest you re-read the article and the other posts.

"Second to the people saying they've done their time leave them alone etc - If this is part of their punishment they have not 'done their time' but are still serving their punishment." - A lifetime punishment- you don't get that for murder.

"Lastly who cares" - just the attitude other posters have been on about.

"Nice try but have you never heard of driving bans, seems very similar to me..." - Perhaps you should think about it a bit more.

You bleeding hearts can cry all you like - the fact is, "convicted sex offenders who used websites to help them commit their crimes" CHOSE to offend. They have CHOSEN to deal with the consequences of their actions if they are caught. In other words, they have CHOSEN to be subject to these conditions.

I have no sympathy whatsoever for paedophiles and similar ilk.

..Sex offenders are automatically pedophiles! Seems like every time somebody mentions the word "sex offender" the image of a 45 year old man having sex with an X year old girl pops into their heads.

It's a stereotype that MUST END. Most SOs that are walking free have either served their due time or did a crime too minor to warrant jail time.

Pathetic that anyone would defend such ridiculous, unreal ban.

This being the US, I would bet that the offenders used cars to go where their victims were in every single case. Ban them from driving, then, since cars were an indispensable element in their committing the crimes. Just in case they get smart and try to use the bus or a taxi next time they get horny: ban then from using ANY means of mechanical transportation (and when that Star Trek thing comes along, ban that too). But do allow them to go around by horse, we're not insensitive savages after all and these people have to get a living somehow in today's world, even if they once did (or not) do something really bad.

What do you say, there are legitimate uses for cars and transportation that these people should be able to use? Wonders never cease...

I'm pretty sure someone could create an OS- and architecture-independent device that connects to the person's internet cable and records what they do, and someone reviews what the software flags, or something on those lines -- OK, it wouldn't be perfect, and privacy would be gone for these people, but at least the ex-cons would have a much fairer chance of living in the modern world. Probably such thing already exists and is used on you anyway, just more remotely (NSA anyone?). But I guess that there would be work and thinking involved just to preserve some people's rights... And who wants to preserve rights, specially of former criminals, right?

How is this even enforceable? Doesn't take a genius to see how this could easily be circumvented.

if the sex crimes were against children then being banned from the internet seems kinda "only a drop in the bucket" of the punishment that should be imposed ..again crimes against children ..not that sex crimes against anyone else is tolerable , but naive ,innocent children . some decisions have consequences that should last a lifetime.

"some decisions have consequences that should last a lifetime."

No they shouldn't society saves the longest and most punitive sentences for the gravest crimes like murder which is most of the time not forever or anything close are you saying this is worse than murder then the sentence should be life in prison anything else is unthinkable, if it's less then anything more is unthinkable, this crap is simply cruelty applied in the name of safety I don't find anything safe or just about it who is next mister over simplifier just anyone you don't happen to like. I'm in favor of good long stays in prison for child molesters even life sentences (real ones) for repeat offenders but this doesn't keep children safe it doesn't deter crime it's just pandering crap law for idiots like you. I doubt this will pass a test in court it's simply another sop for Scott and the other hydrocephalic masses that vote for shit like GW.

Once, one of these sinners (he had been drinking alchohol) came onto our white picket fenced lawn and urinated against our apple tree whilst my three-year-old daughter watched through the window. Sex offenders like this should be sent to Australia with the rest of the garbage. I only say this because I love my country and it is about time that we cleaned it up.

God Bless America, War On Terror, God's Country! Yeeeeeehaaaaa!

Christine

<<Maybe New Jersey shouldn't let Sex Offenders be any place where children are present or maybe they should just have to wear a big "SO" on their clothing at all times>>

Better, maybe would be a star of David. That used to work....Once, in Adolf's time.

@Bryce Prewitt

Sex offender? It's now a status symbol for kids in some parts of Britain to have an "ASBO" (Antiscocial Behaviour Order). Why not a status of making it to the Sex Offenders register? After all, with the privacy rules, no-one could tell if you'd be wankin*g off the boy next door, or fuck*ing Paris Hilton when she was an underage teenager...

..seem to have admitted that they are a country of violent perverts who have to be protected from themselves, each other, personal responsibility, parental responsibility, judgement, common sense, reality, etc etc etc..

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/31/oz_net_filter_plan/

..seems to me that any SO's expelled from the USA would fit right in.

On the other hand we could just send the US Taliban over there instead, then they wouldn't have to see anything on the web that upsets them and normal people could then take a piss in their own back garden when neccessary (I lose my keys a lot) without being branded a paedophile by every ignorant fuckwit who doesn't let facts or proportionality get in the way of a good scare story.

As in, this bit?:

"However, Godwin's law itself can be abused, as a distraction or diversion, that fallaciously miscasts an opponent's argument as hyperbole, especially if the comparisons made by the argument are actually appropriate. A 2005 Reason magazine article argued that Godwin's law is often misused to ridicule even valid comparisons."

This law is clearly an ass and (once again, up to the rather ill-advised gender diversion) Bryce Prewitt's one of several posts which amply sum up why.

To clarify, this State law was introduced in New Jersey. For those of you unfamiliar with 'Jersey', they passed a law a few years back making it a crime to shovel snow into the street. It's a land of outrageous legislation. In addition, this law targets sex offenders and is one of many ridiculous laws passing on the coat tails of the Federal Megan's Law which a) Does not work and b) is cruel and unusual punishment for sex offenders. Simply taking a piss in public could land you on the sex offenders list, opening the possibility of loosing your home and your job. Soliciting a prostitute could also land you on the sex offenders list, except in the state of Nevada where it's perfectly legal and regulated.

In New York, legislation was introduced to place sex offenders into their own emergency shelters in the event of a situation which warrants the use of one. This is all part of a continued attack on society by the religious conservative zealots who thrive under the rule of King George Bush the First. btw - Bush's term ends in 2008. Those of us in the States will breath a sigh of relief when this mentally retarded 'decision maker' fades quickly into the history books and we are deeply embarrassed for most of what he has said and done.