Lawmakers seek ways to block Net porn

Ashdown, who was the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate a year ago, said XMission has been providing Internet filters to his clients for more than 10 years — long before the Utah Legislature got involved in Internet control.

"I find it odd that they talk about a seal of approval if you don't provide porn to minors. That is already against the law. And if I do that, I should be thrown in jail, more of an incentive than some seal," said Ashdown, who said he didn't know about the committee hearing and so didn't attend.

Ashdown was responding to a proposal from Preston that would designate Utah-based Internet service providers "community conscious" by state government if they require that its Internet users don't publish obscene material, take down obscene material and comply with court orders to remove any prohibited content. She said tax incentives could also be offered to companies that participate in the program.

"If you're a Utah provider we'll give you a designation that you can use in your advertising that you're an ISP that's chosen to (be) helpful in eliminating pornography. If you choose not to do that, great. But the citizens in Utah will be made aware," she said.

Preston said those incentives would avoid the constitutional questions surrounding government restrictions to Internet access and penalties.

Yarro and Preston said free wireless sites and subscribers should be held responsible should any porn be delivered to minors. To avoid a fine for leaving a wireless network open, a computer owner could require a password or install a filtering program that blocks pornograpy, they said.

"I provide free access to Salt Lake City" locations "and to the city library," Ashdown said. "They can do that, and I'll just shut down my free access zones, and Utah's reputation will be damaged as a place that is restricting technology rather than expanding it.

"I also find it odd that the Legislature wants to discriminate between locally owned ISPs and national — AOL will not be held to the same standard," Ashdown said.

Sen. Carlene Walker, R-Holladay, told committee members that she is also concerned about the balance between being consumer friendly and business friendly. "Utah is seen as a business-friendly state, but we also have families we worry about," she said.

Key to making any proposal work, she said, is a statewide education program so citizens can learn about the real problem with the uncontrolled porn in our society, mainly coming through the Internet.

But Ashdown said he continually finds it interesting that legislators don't talk about the local hotels in Utah providing "pornography" to anyone in their hotel rooms through purchases of adult sex films over the internal TV channels.

"They sell porn to anyone" in the room, yet legislators "divert concern to ISPs who are doing our best" to keep porn out of the reach of minors, Ashdown said.

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Contributing: Associated Press

E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com