Already, the attorney general's office and the state of Utah are facing a federal suit over its planned Adult Content Registry, a program that requires that any Internet sites that deal with adult content register with Utah and thus be blocked by some Internet service providers, per user request. The law also makes distributing potentially harmful material to minors a felony offense.

More than a dozen bookstores, artists and related trade organizations, plus the American Civil Liberties Union, filed the suit last month. The groups claim Utah is attempting to regulate adult content that is constitutionally protected.

Attorney general spokesman Paul Murphy said the state plans to file a response to the suit in the coming weeks. As for what will be deemed inappropriate content for the e-mail registry, Murphy said his office is still working on the definitions.

According to a 2003 study on e-mail and children, 80 percent of children in the United States are the targets of inappropriate messages.

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