New York adults still cannot use the Internet to lure minors into sex, as the state's highest court has upheld a law aimed at banning just that.
Freedom Forum says a 54-year-old Grand Island radio engineer, Thomas Foley, argued the law was too broad, vague, and unconstitutional because it limited free speech and interstate trade. The state Court of Appeals disagreed, saying the law was a "pre-emptive strike" against underage sex abuse.
Foley was the first to be found guilty under the four-year-old law.
New York Gov. George Pataki applauded the Court of Appeals ruling. "I think the Internet is an enormous potential tool for good," he told the Associated Press. "(But) it also has the ability for people to anonymously engage in horrendous criminal acts like pedophiles, and I think we have to have that authority to go after that."
