COLUMBIA, S.C. - State law enforcement finally has a law that can be used to prosecute Internet child predators before any physical contact takes place.

South Carolina is joining 29 other states by making it illegal to stalk, lure or entice a minor for abduction or sexual assault, said Laura Hudson of the South Carolina Victims Assistance Network. Gov. Mark Sanford signed the bill into law Monday.

"It's a progressive statute, I believe, because it builds in ... the elimination of a defense that the person you're talking to is not actually a minor but might be a law enforcement officer," said Debra Tedeschi, an assistant state attorney general assigned to the Internet crime children's task force.

The law mandates a 10-year sentence for each offense, which Attorney General Henry McMaster said can multiply if there are several online contacts before an arrest.

McMaster said previous child predators have been prosecuted in South Carolina once an assault or meeting has taken place but this legislation would "stop them before they got that far, to catch them before they caught the child."

"This is a tool that law enforcement's going to be able to use for them to be proactive in the protection of our children rather than reactive," said state Rep. Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, who sponsored the bill.

The state previously had to rely on federal laws, which carry a minimum five-year sentence, to prosecute child predators before physical contact occurred.

Federal laws were used recently to convict Wilburn Vernon Biggers, 61, of Charleston based on Internet chats and e-mails he thought were with a 15-year-old girl, said agent Billy Crumpton of the State Law Enforcement Division. However, Biggers was talking to a law officer with the federally funded South Carolina Computer Crime Center, operated by officers from SLED, FBI and the Secret Service.

McMaster said Tuesday the crime center is planning future stings.

McMaster didn't know how many cases might be prosecuted under the new law but said "South Carolina has a problem like the rest of the country."

Hudson said her victims' advocacy group has been fighting for several years to get a law passed. "It has taken our attorney general to bring that to the attention of the Legislature," Hudson said.

The measure passed easily, Smith said, because McMaster promoted it. The bill was temporarily scrutinized because lawmakers didn't want teenage couples to get caught up in the law. Revisions were made to prevent teens from being prosecuted on technicalities, Smith said.