On Dec. 15, the California Department of Justice released the new Megan's Law website. Now, citizens can access information about registered sex offenders—including their names and, in some cases, photos and street addresses— from their home computers. Previously, the information was only available at law enforcement offices.

With a click of the mouse, users can locate sex offenders that live in their area by entering a county, Zip code, city, address, park or school. The registry has 20 residents of Cupertino listed, 11 of them registered with their full addresses.

However, Terrence Helm, a public information officer for the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office, cautioned Cupertino residents to still be careful. "Not everyone is [registered] online," he said. "Residents should still come into the substation to get the most complete information." Unlisted offenders are either transient and do not reside permanently in town, or offenders with crimes that do not qualify for the registry.

A person convicted of felony sexual battery, lewd and lascivious acts with a minor within their family or misdemeanor child molestation can file for exclusion from the registry, and therefore may not appear on the website. In addition, because there are so many degrees of sex offenses—from exposure in public to violent sex crimes—many of the less-severe crimes do not qualify for registration

According to a spokeswoman for Assemblywoman Nicole Parra—who authored Assembly Bill 488 that made the registration public—lewd acts with a child within a family, considered incest, do not require the offender to appear on the online map. This is done to protect the victim's identity.

Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety Detective Eric Fuji—who handles crimes including domestic violence and sex crimes—said that while the registry has made the community feel safer because residents can now identify registered sex offenders in their area, being safe means more than looking at a website.

"The downside with putting something like this up is that people get a false sense of security because they think they only need to worry about the people on the list," Fuji said. "People have to understand that even though they know where a registered sex offender lives, their kids won't be safe if they just avoid that house. They still need to teach their children how to be aware and be safe."

The new website is the result of a California law that passed in August 2004. But Nathan Barankin, the state attorney general's communications director, said the office of the attorney general had advocated for years to put the information online.

Barankin said the office had also considered some of the potential problems that could arise out of making sex offender's personal information available to the public.

"[We considered] the prospect of sex offenders being able to network by accessing each other's information," he said. "Also, there was some concern about the public's response. Some people might be irresponsible with the information available to them. Those are concerns that are brought up repeatedly, and are not unique to the Internet. But we haven't seen those problems in the past, and we don't expect them to occur now. And there is a great benefit to making public information available to the public."

Helm said the police were not overly concerned about the public's response. "You have to understand California is the last of the states to establish a Megan's law site," he said. "It's been tested elsewhere and there has been very little, if any, problems with vigilante justice."

In addition to the registry, the website has tips for families to better protect themselves from potential sex offenders in their area.

"It's not as simple as looking at the faces on the web page. Parents still need to talk to their kids about how to be safe," Fuji said. "The highest number of crimes against kids are not committed by strangers, so the old saying 'Don't talk to strangers,' doesn't really help here.' "

Megan's Law itself—enacted in 1996—was named after 7-year-old New Jersey resident Megan Kanka, who was raped and killed by a known child molester who, unbeknownst to her family, moved across the street from her home. The law requires information of individuals who are convicted of specified sex crimes to be released to the public. In addition to the registry, the website has tips for families to better protect themselves from potential sex offenders in their area.

"It's a useful tool," Helm said, "so long as people know to use the information at the substation as well."

To view the registry, or for more information on sex crimes or what families can do to be safe, visit www.meganslaw.ca.gov.

Jason Goldman-Hall contributed to this article.