A tamer version of a Utah bill requiring warning labels on pornography emerged from the Senate on Friday, one vote away from heading to the governor’s desk.
Under the modified legislation, an adult content website would have to display a simple, one-sentence warning about how “exposing minors to obscene material" could damage or negatively impact them. Alternatively, the website could embed in its metadata the searchable text, “utahobscenitywarning.”
Though free speech advocates have criticized the proposed mandate, Sen. Todd Weiler said he doesn’t believe the requirement would infringe on the First Amendment.
“The content can still be viewed,” Weiler, R-Woods Cross, the bill’s Senate sponsor, said. “Just like before you open a pack of cigarettes, there’s a warning on the side. You can still smoke the cigarettes.”
Those who violate the mandate could face fines of up to $2,500 per infraction. But pornography distributors wouldn’t face repercussions for the occasional slip-up — as long as they could prove they’d complied with the warning label mandate at least 75% of the time over the past six months.
The original bill did not include the metadata allowance and required a much lengthier denunciation of pornography that warned the material could impair brain and emotional development and cause low self-esteem and relationship problems if shown to minors.
The 20-6 vote to pass HB243 broke along party lines. The Legislation now heads to the House, which will consider the changes made in the Senate.
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