HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Gov. Ed Rendell has signed a law allowing photographs and personal information on more than 7,000 registered sex offenders to be posted on the Internet within six months.

Pennsylvania’s current database provides information on just 57 sexual offenders and is available to the public only by e-mail request.

The new law, which Rendell signed Wednesday, calls for a site listing the name, city, county, zip code and picture of every registrant. Street addresses will be posted for the most serious offenders, classified as “sexually violent predators.”

Police will continue to notify neighbors when sexually violent predators move into their communities.

Earlier this year, the state auditor said community notifications in Pennsylvania were often inaccurate, late and ineffective.

“The system was broke, and we weren’t getting the right information where it belonged,” Rendell said.

Opponents of the expanded Web postings said the law will hurt efforts to rehabilitate convicted sex offenders and likely set off a new wave of court challenges.

“We are making it … more difficult for people who have served prison time to go back to a community, get jobs, connect with their families,” said Larry Frankel of the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.