“A Buzz Saw of Dissent” Ousts Porn-Filtering Proposal in Utah

This year, it’s important to savor every bit of good news that comes our way. So today, I’m happy to announce that a porn-blocking proposal has been blocked in the Utah state legislature.

Utah was the first state in a conservative-led rush to declare porn “an epidemic” back in 2016, and has maintained a fairly constant stream of anti-smut shenanigans ever since. But some Utahns, at least in the state’s Business and Labor Interim Committee, have finally had enough. On October 20, Art Raymond of the Deseret News reported that Rep. Susan Pulsipher brought to the committee a proposal to force software blocking access to “legal but explicit internet content” onto internet-capable devices sold throughout the state.

“Pulsipher said the goal of her effort was to create another wall of defense to help protect children from ‘the damaging impact of pornography,’” Raymond reported. But the Business and Labor Interim Committee was having none of it. “Noting that it would be extremely difficult to identify which entity in the consumer electronics supply chain should be held liable for ensuring that software was activated,” lawmakers delivered Pulsipher “a buzz saw of dissent.” 

Rep. Cory Maloy was quoted as saying, “The parents at home would be the place those filters are appropriately implemented,” rather than some vaguely involved entity somewhere along the supply chain. “I am also concerned about the constitutionality of this,” continued Maloy, “trying to have the manufacturer do something that is really not necessarily their responsibility.”

When Pulsipher vowed to revise the bill with the committee’s criticism in mind, Senate Majority Whip Dan Hemmert replied, “I’m probably going to be a no on this bill no matter what happens.…I’ve had enough nanny state in my life this past year and I don’t need more, and we already have restrictions, limitations on the distribution of pornography.”

Puslipher said that she believed that “compelling manufacturers and distributors of internet-connected electronic devices…was a better method of protecting minors than ‘other legislative efforts’ proposed so far.” 

It’s likely that Pulsipher was referencing—and that Hemmert and Maloy were both tired of dealing with fallout from—other legislation that seeks to limit Utahns’ access to adult entertainment. The Utah legislature has been wrestling since February with a law requiring all pornographic content in the state to be labeled as “harmful.” That law has been whittled down considerably to apply only to material truly considered obscene under the law, since its logistical and constitutional snags were pointed out by the ACLU and FSC. And, given the slippery nature of obscenity in the US, its implementation is still dubious at best when it comes to enforcement.

Rep. Pulsipher found out the hard way that living in a country where freedom of speech is a constitutional right sure does make it difficult to squash the expression of that right, even if you live in the anti-smut state of Utah. 

Circular saw blade photo by Vea Avernalis from FreeImages.com