Gena Chudyk watches her 2-year-old son as he plays on the playground. But she's also watching for sexual predators.

Chudyk says, "They're everywhere. You never know where they're lurking."

She feels a little safer knowing governor Mark Sanford signed Jessie's law Thursday.

Jesse's law means South Carolina now has the toughest penalties in the country for sexual predators.

Chudyk says, "This will make me a lot more comfortable in Myrtle Beach. We have a lot of tourists that are here. And we have people from outside that come and go and this will be a very good thing."

The bill imposes a mandatory minimum of 25 years in prison for sexual predators. It also allows the death penalty as a sentencing option for certain repeat sex offenders.

One speaker at the signing says, "Many people will say, shouldn't capital punishment be reserved for those who take a life and our argument was, when you violate a child in such a way, you take a very important part of that child's soul and they never recover."

Lou Krieger was a big pusher for the signing of the bill and says, "I hope this sends out a message. Go somewhere up to Massachusetts or somewhere else where they don't have these laws and they don't want to enact them and just get them out of South Carolina."

Tia Rahter is 16 years old and says, "It means that my friends and the people in my generation will be protected from predators."

For parents like Chudyk, this law means their children can grow up in a state that protects them.

The bill also requires sex offenders update the registry every six months.

It mandates electronic monitoring of offenders guilty of criminal sexual conduct in the first degree.

Revise and strengthen the penalties for assisting or harboring unregistered sex offenders.