Gov. Gibbons signs Internet predator bill

Gov. Jim Gibbons on Friday signed into law a bill making it easier to prosecute Internet predators who go online to lure someone they think is a child but instead turns out to be a police investigator.

AB72, a reaction to a Nevada Supreme Court ruling against prosecutors in such cases, would broaden current state law that makes it illegal to knowingly contact or try to contact someone less than 16 with the intent to lure that person into sexual conduct.

Also signed by Gibbons were:

• AB261, requiring child welfare agencies to release more information about children in their care who die or are critically injured.

The bill was introduced in response to a study that found 11 children died of abuse while in the protective custody of the Clark County Department of Child and Family Services between 2001 and 2004.

• AB306, which makes it easier for authorities to confiscate property from those convicted of technological crimes.

Under current law, state prosecutors who win a "technological crime" conviction must rely on local-level prosecutors to bring separate, civil charges to force offenders to forfeit property. The new law changes that by allowing the state prosecutors to pursue criminal forfeitures in technological crimes the same way they do in racketeering cases.

• AB117, which would give parents and siblings of a person going through a divorce a right to sit in on court proceedings.