Social Networking Restrictions on Sex Offenders

In last week’s news roundup, Shea mentioned Doe v. Prosecutor, Marion County, Indiana, a recent case in which the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit struck Indiana’s law prohibiting sex offenders from using social networking websites on First Amendment grounds. North Carolina has a similar crime, a Class I felony under G.S. 14-202.5, which has resulted in an increasing number of convictions each year since its enactment in 2008: 7 in fiscal year 2009/10; 29 in 2010/11; and 47 in 2011/12. With that in mind, today’s post takes a closer look at the Indiana case. Doe was a class action filed in federal court by an Indiana man on behalf of a class of similarly situated sex offenders. The suit challenged the constitutionality of Indiana Code § 35-42-4-12, which prohibits certain sex offenders from knowingly or intentionally using a “social networking web sites” or “instant messaging or chat room programs” that allow access or use by minors. The federal district court judge upheld the law, finding it to be appropriately tailored to meet the state’s legitimate interest in protecting children from predators and not “substantially broader than necessary” to meet that end. The Seventh Circuit reversed.  The court applied the version of intermediate scrutiny applicable to content neutral restrictions on speech like this one: the law must be “narrowly tailored to serve a significant governmental interest” and must “leave open ample alternative channels for communication of the information.” Slip op. at 8. There was no question that the [...]