Anti-porn registry is defended

Tarryn Galloway thought signing up her 10-year-old son Kasey for Utah's new Child Protection Registry would keep his e-mail box free from porn spam.

"I have three boys and I signed up all three the day the site came live," she said Tuesday. "Two of my children continued to receive pornographic e-mail."

The Child Protection Registry works like a do-not-call list, allowing parents to protect their children's e-mail addresses at www.kidsregistry.utah.gov. The adult industry, alcohol and tobacco companies are required under Utah law to check their e-mail lists against the registry and scrub any e-mails that match. It costs the companies a half-cent per e-mail address. Companies that violate the law are subject to fines.

A California-based group calling itself the Free Speech Coalition is suing Utah, claiming the registry violates its first and 14th amendment rights. The group, made up of some 3,000 producers and distributors in the adult entertainment industry, claims in the 2005 lawsuit that the registry puts an undue burden on e-marketers and treats them differently than any other marketer.

On Tuesday, a friend-of-the court brief was filed in Salt Lake City's federal court by the Utah Parent Teacher Association (PTA) and 37 state lawmakers. Standing side-by-side at a news conference were both Republican and Democrat lawmakers.

"This is a bi-partisan effort," said Utah House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy. "Pornography is affecting families in the most base way. It's destroying children as well as adults. This gives an opportunity for parents to protect their children."

The company that manages the registry, Park City-based UnSpam, said 175,000 e-mails had been included in the registry and a number of big-name companies were cross-referencing their marketing e-mail lists with it.

The Utah PTA defended the Child Protection Registry as a good tool for parents to protect their children from X-rated spam.

"The Child Protection Registry is a simple, free, common sense measure that will help parents to protect our children," said Shauna Johnson of the Utah PTA.

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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com