The term refers to a type of statute passed following the 1994 death of a seven-year-old girl named Megan Kanka, who was raped and killed by a sex offender on parole who lived across the street from her in Hamilton, New Jersey. First New Jersey and then most other states adopted some version of "Megan's Law." These laws require public notice that a sex offender is moving into a neighborhood, on the theory that people on notice will take increased care to protect their children. The relevant portion of the federal Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 was amended in 1996 to require states to adopt procedures for neighborhood notification. The information disclosed about individuals is quite specific, with distinctions made in various state statutes between different types of information (addresses, photographs, descriptions of modus operandi) and the degree of risk to the community. Many states have set up Web sites giving information about sex offenders.

Megan's Laws are highly controversial because of a conflict between the protection of the public and the protection of the privacy rights of offenders who have served their sentences and been released.

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