Utah governor weighs antiporn proposal

CNET Reports The Utah governor is deciding whether to sign a bill that would require Internet providers to block Web sites deemed pornographic and that could also target e-mail providers and search engines.

Late Wednesday night, the Utah Senate approved controversial legislation that would create an official list of Web sites with publicly available material found to be “harmful to minors.” Internet providers in Utah must offer their customers a way to disable access to sites on the list or face felony charges.

March 6, 2005 by Uncategorized 2

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2 Responses

  1. Redcardlibrarian says:
    March 6, 2005 at 6:07 am

    New Bureaucracy
    So, does that mean that there will be a new Department in Utah that is going to look at websites to determine how pornographic they are? Where do I apply, I think I have more than enough experience.

    On a more serious note, is it really a good idea for Government to get involved in the business of determing what websites are bad, and what ones are good, for their citizens? We in libraries do something along those lines with Suggested Reading lists, etc… However, if someone checks out a book they don’t like, the publisher isn’t hit with a felony charge.

    Reply
  2. Fang-Face says:
    March 6, 2005 at 8:36 am

    Re:New Bureaucracy
    So, does this mean that Utah would ban my banned books page? That’s 1,526 titles of books which are “Harmful To Minors” (tm, copyright, registered, patent pending). Dr. Seuss, Where’s Waldo, Maurice Sendak, and Captain Underpants. Heck, just the list alone should be harmful to minors since it would tell them what titles to look for that they won’t be allowed to look at. And, after all, there are precedents where book catalogues — well, one anyway, at least — was challenged for that very reason.

    At any rate, twistedlibrarian, you might as save a tree or at least a bush and not burn off any copies of your CV. Utah had a “porn czar” once upon a time, but her office was axed due to budget cuts.

    Reply

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