Utah Senator Proposes Porn Filtering Legislation Again

SALT LAKE CITY—Utah state Sen. Todd Weiler, a socially conservative Republican, and a very devout anti-porn campaigner, has introduced legislation that would add teeth to a 2021 law requiring mobile device manufacturers to enable parental filters blocking adult content at the point of sale, reports The Salt Lake Tribune. Penalties for violating this bill if it were to become law include criminal sanctions against the manufacturers of mobile devices such as Apple, Samsung, Google and Lenovo.  The bill is Senate Bill (SB) 104, or the Children's Device Protection Act. A member of the LDS Church, Sen. Weiler holds much power in the Utah state legislature.  He is the lawmaker who pushed Utah to become the first state to declare pornography a public health crisis.  He also was the state senate’s point man for pushing age verification. “In the years since then, we’ve kind of made ourselves an outlier when it comes to social media and porn websites,” said Weiler before a committee hearing on the bill.  “So it kind of begs the question, why are we waiting for other states on this one?” Weiler’s bill was introduced in the Senate by colleague state Rep. Susan Pulsipher, another socially conservative Republican. Currently, the legislation is held by a Senate committee. Dylan Hoffman, a lobbyist for TechNet, a trade organization representing technology companies, voiced opposition to the bill. “We don’t believe that [this bill] is technically feasible,” said Hoffman.  Lobbyists for AT&T and Verizon are opposed, including a government relations expert working out of Libertas Institute, a libertarian think tank. The bill is currently being amended.