The law is the latest effort to reconcile free speech rights with the desire to protect children from predators who use electronic communications tools to entice their victims.
BOSTON – Gov. Deval L. Patrick has signed into law a measure designed to close what critics describe as a loophole in state law that fails to protect minors from obscene electronic messages sent to them by suspected sexual predators.
The change was included in a supplemental budget approved by lawmakers. It would bar anyone from using electronic means to purposefully disseminate harmful material to a person they know or believe to be a minor.
The language is the latest effort to reconcile free speech rights with the desire to protect children from predators who use tools such as the Internet, sexually-explicit text messages or emails to entice their victims.
A federal judge put on hold an earlier attempt to bring the law up to date, saying that the wording was too broad.