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February 5, 2008

Utah Backs off on Age Verification for Wi-Fi Bill

By Glenn Fleishman

A state rep in Utah tries to find common ground in keeping kids from viewing online porn and businesses that say they’ll shut up shop: The bill would have required an attempt by anyone running a public Wi-Fi network to verify a user’s age, and then prevent them from viewing obscene material if they’re not an adult or can’t verify their age. A penalty of $1,000 per incident would be imposed. That’s probably an unconstitutional restraint right there, but a local free wireless operator, Xmission, said it would cost them $5,000 per month to verify ages, and would instead shut down its public service.

The legislator pushing the bill is “backing off the age verification provision,” but suggests filtering should be required. Which is also silly. Filtering doesn’t really work; it either blocks everything, or it’s too porous.

The anti-pornography group The CP80 Foundation that was pushing for the bill thinks that it shouldn’t take much effort on a business’s part—obviously, they haven’t done the math on this—and that homeowners should be regulated as well. Aren’t these Republicans? What’s with all the regulation?

Posted by Glennf at February 5, 2008 10:23 AM

Categories: Regulation

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