Utah Porn Filtering Bill Advances Out of Legislature

SALT LAKE CITY—Senate Bill (SB) 104, officially the Children's Device Protection Act, is poised to be signed into law by Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a conservative Republican and member of the LDS Church. SB 104 is likely to be legally challenged as unconstitutional. Republican state Sen. Todd Weiler and state Rep. Susan Pulsipher introduced the act in a bid to advance elements of a law passed in 2021. Once signed into law, provided Gov. Cox doesn't veto the bill for some reason, Senate Bill 104 would require mobile device manufacturers to enable filters that block pornography content at the point of purchase for all devices sold to minors and adults. Manufacturers and employees could face prison time, a felony or a misdemeanor charge, if the law isn't respected. The only way to remove the parental filters is through a code provided to a parent or legally aged adult directly from the device manufacturer.  This bill implements the provisions of the 2021 law, which originally mandated that it wouldn't enter force unless five other states offered similar legislation. Utah remains alone in the adoption of a porn filtering requirement for all mobile tablets and phones. Regulated manufacturers would include Apple, Asus, Google, Samsung, Lenovo, and dozens of others. The mobile phone market is dominated by Apple and Samsung and the operating systems iOS and Android. Apple iOS and Android both come with parental controls pre-installed by disabled, providing the parent or guardian the choice to enable the filtering software. Weiler and Pulsipher claim that parents struggled to identify parental controls. This is far-fetched, given that this information is readily available online.  Device manufacturers and retailers have expressed concern over the liability levied onto their businesses by this bill. A retailer group representing major companies with business operations in Utah has cautioned against the legislation, calling it an overreach. AVN reported on the passage of that bill, House Bill 72, was signed by Gov. Cox to send an "important message."   Weiler introduced the 2021 bill and this immediate bill to counter so-called "porn addiction." Major psychiatric organizations have criticized the push to characterize pornography as an addiction. It is the position of the American Psychological Association that pornography isn't an addiction and is rather a product of behavior, compulsion, and environment. Weiler was also the lawmaker who sponsored a resolution in 2016 that Utah lawmakers adopted declaring pornography a supposed public health crisis. Public health practitioners have additionally come out against the efforts to classify pornography as a crisis similar to a disease or virus.  AVN will inform readers upon Gov. Cox adopting Senate Bill 104.