Three registered sex offenders have been arrested in New Jersey for violating their parole by accessing social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, although a state’s new law restricted their use of the Internet, authorities said Friday.

The sex offenders were discovered by police officials who had set up accounts on the above mentioned websites, posing as teenagers, in order to monitor them.

The new law adopted by the state in January restricts Internet use for registered sex offenders who committed their original sex crime using the web to lure their victims. The law does not involve computer work done as a job or search for employment. Violators of the law can face up to 18 months in jail.

Stanton Ulmer, 32, of Neptune, Felice Black, 24, of Paterson, and Pietro Parisi, 34, of Westville, Gloucester County, were all arrested, and detectives also confiscated their computers, a webcam and a cell phone.

The State Police said the three men had set up accounts on MySpace and Facebook under their own names, but they hadn’t been found guilty of any improper behavior.

"We're not alleging at this time they were actively engaged in any kind of suspicious or illicit actively," said Lt. Keith Halton, assistant bureau chief of the Computer Crimes and High Tech Surveillance Bureau, according to The Star-Ledger. "We're going after them be cause they were engaged on these social networking sites."

Halton further explained that, even if the three defendants were not involved in any suspicious activity, the fact that they had been previously convicted was alarming.

The three were arrested after a four-month investigation by the State Police Digital Technology Investigations Unit, helped by the State Parole Board.

According to the Ledger, last year authorities found at least 268 registered New Jersey sex offenders with MySpace accounts.