Porn could be BLOCKED on phones and tablets under new law in US
PORN would automatically be blocked on phones and tablets in Utah under a new law being pushed by conservative lawmakers.
Critics have hit out at the proposal introduced to the state senate in the majority Morman state as they believe it to be unconstitutional but parents are pushing for the right to protect children from explicit content.
The state’s Republican governor Spencer Cox has said he will assess the bill but has not yet indicated if he will support it.
Gov Cox has until March 25 to sign the legislation.
Utah will be the first state to introduce such measures if the bill, proposed by Republican Rep. Susan Pulsipher, is adopted.
It is focused on allowing parents to restrict their children from being able to access porn on their devices and adults will be able to turn off the filter if they choose.
Concerns had been raised that children are more vulnerable to explicit material, as many now have their own devices and are spending more time online due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The bill would enforce “filter requirements” on any tablets or phones activated from January 1, if it comes into effect this year.
Any manufacturer who did not abide by the law could receive a civil penalty ranging from $10 to $500.
Phone manufacturers and retailers have cautioned that the measure would be difficult to enforce in a single state.
The companies successfully lobbied for a provision in the bill that will prevent it from being enforced unless at least five other states also introduce the porn filter.
Rep. Pulsipher has pushed back on claims that the law would violate free speech rights of Utah residents and claimed that it would still not completely protect children from accessing porn.
“A child that wants to find it and tries to would probably be able to still. It’s just one step in the right direction,” she argued.
The National Center on Sexual Exploitation welcomed the move as a protection of children.
“Utah has passed a critical, common sense solution to help protect vulnerable children from accessing harmful pornographic content on phones and tablets,” Dawn Hawkins, Executive Director of the center, said in a statement.
Even though adults can disable the filter, critics have still argued that the measure is a step too far and could be used to track people traveling through Utah.
“You’ve basically got the state mandating the filtering of lawful content. That raises immediate First Amendment flags,” Samir Jain, policy director at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington, D.C.-based internet policy group told the New York Post.
She added that because the wording of a bill states that any device ‘activated’ in the state would be subject to the filter, it would give away the location of people passing through the state.
Mike Stabile, a spokesman for the Free Speech Coalition, an adult-entertainment trade group, also argued that the filter could be used to block art and sex education.
The bill comes just weeks after a proposal to expand sex education in Utah failed.
It was voted down in in the Utah House in February even after a controversial requirement for consent to be taught as part of schools’ sex education was removed.
Utah parents still have the right to decide if their children take sex education in school or not.
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In 2016, lawmakers in Utah branded access to pornography as a “public health crisis” as they pushed for warning labels.
That same year, former Republican Governor Gary Herbert had wanted to send $50,000 of taxpayer money to a group advocating against pornography.
The conservative Mormon culture often regards mainstream magazines and lingerie catalogs as offensive and have railed against them.