Porn Filtering Bill Passes Utah House Despite Opposition

SALT LAKE CITY — A proposal mandating that porn filtering software be installed on every new mobile device sold in Utah passed the State House last week.  House Bill (HB 72), introduced by anti-porn Republican State Rep. Susan Pulsipher, now advances to the Utah Senate with other anti-porn lawmakers backing it. 

The Salt Lake Tribune reported on Feb. 3 that HB 72 was initially derailed, with lawmakers declining to take it up for a vote. I wrote for YNOT, citing the Tribune story, that the chance of a bill passing with no initial backing has a feeble chance of advancing. However, in a fashion that even defies my colleagues’ reasoning in the legal space, the bill passed. 

My post, “Dispatches from Anti-Porn Utah,” published Feb. 12, lacked updated information reflecting a House committee advancing the bill by a 6 to 5 vote in favor of it moving toward Senate discussion and potential approval. While I am still making inquiries as to why the committee changed course, the House — dominated by a Republican supermajority — advanced the bill with 41 to 30 votes in favor of the legislation, with four abstaining or absent. 

Outside of the political-facing backtracking, a closer review of the House records show an effort to substitute the original HB 72 that the committee held was advanced. Rep. Susan Pulsipher, with the backing of Republican Sen. Wayne A. Harper, sponsored substitute legislation that made it to the Senate, as described above. Pulsipher and her allies were able to turn over a bill rewrite with hyperpartisan support quickly — enough to pass the legislation to the next house in the legislature and potentially to the desk of Republican Gov. Spencer Cox. 

The original reading of the bill would force every new mobile device sold in the state to have porn blocking software. HB 72 would mandate porn filters designed by for-profit, faith-based SaaS developers. Manufacturers, such as Google or Apple, would face civil liability if they fail to comply with the requirements. A user who doesn’t want the filters installed can disable them manually once the phone or mobile device is purchased.

This sort of bill forces manufacturers to comply with undue burdens to curtail the so-called public health crisis. The updated substitute bill does this but in a fashion that is digestible by other lawmakers. Two Republican lawmakers joined three Democrats to vote against the bill, leading to its narrow passage through the House Public Utilities, Energy, and Technology Committee.

A Senate version of the bill was introduced on Feb. 18 and was referred to the Senate Transportation, Public Utilities, Energy, and Technology Committee by the Republican leadership.

Opponents to HB 72 argue that the implementation of the law is practically impossible. From a manufacturing standpoint, companies that mass-produce mobile devices would face an extreme supply chain issue. The majority of mobile devices, and the components for those devices used by Americans, including Utahns like Mrs. Pulsipher, are manufactured in China, Taiwan, or South Korea. This also includes software programming and additional pre-installation builds of the operating systems for these devices.

Per HB 72, if passed, all shipments of mobile devices intended for the Utah market will be required to have filtering software that blocks porn and NSFW content. 

Most of the software that the legislation immediately promotes comes from developers that develop filtering software to block pornographic content to protect children and hold big tech accountable, ostensibly. Because of this mandate, the cost of producing and sending a device to market will be increased and could result in a massive product exit from the Utah market. 

On an interstate commerce issue, this legislation would impact international and state-state trade. That, itself, invites a crisis regarding the role and supremacy of the federal government and Congress.  On the fronts of free speech and cybersecurity, critics say HB 72  would violate First Amendment rights and place the role of protecting a child from the state — not the parents. 

“Utah will be sending out a message to parents saying not to worry how these devices work because the protections are on,” said Carl Szabo, the vice president and general counsel for NetChoice, an internet free speech trade association featuring corporate members like Google, Facebook, TikTok, and Etsy. “That creates a false sense of security where parents will hand the devices to children and not take the necessary steps to teach them how to use the device and oversee its use. This bill will tell parents not to do their jobs because the state will do it for them.”

YNOT will continue to track this bill moving forward.  

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