FIC Blog

I testified yesterday before the Select Committee on Children in favor of S.B. 46, An Act Establishing An Electronic Message Children’s Protection Registry. The state Commissioner of Consumer Protection and Matthew Prince, CEO of Unspam, also testified for the bill. Trevor Hughes, executive director of the E-Mail Sender and Provider Coalition, testified against it and someone for CBIA said the group generally supports the bill but wanted to alter some of its language. 

FIC has a key role to play in this fight. Congress has already acted by passing CANSPAM, a law setting a floor for a basic level of protection from inappropriate electronic messages. But it is the states that have traditionally exercised the power to regulate local standards of obscenity, morals and education. Connecticut should not abdicate that role in the case of the internet and other electronic media. Just as our state was a leader in passing “do not call list” laws, we must be a leader in protecting our children from those who would use electronic technology to prey on them.

The most disturbing part of yesterday’s hearing was when the co-chairman, Rep. Michael Cardin (D-Ashford, Tolland, Willington), noted that “in the last 48 hours” committee members’ in-boxes had been stuffed with e-mails about this bill, mostly in opposition to the bill and from out-of-state! The members of the Select Committee on Children need to hear from state voters asking them to protect children by passing S.B. 46! Click here to send a pre-written message to them and to your own Senator and Representative.

Here is my testimony:

Good morning Chairman Meyers, Chairman Cardin and members of the committee. My name is Peter Wolfgang and I am the Director of Public Policy for the Family Institute of Connecticut, an organization whose mission is “to encourage and strengthen the family as the foundation of society and to promote sound, ethical and moral values in our culture and government.” I am here today to ask you to support S.B. 46, An Act Establishing An Electronic Message Children’s Protection Registry.

This legislation will create a communication protection service that would allow parents and schools to register electronic contact points such as e-mail addresses, mobile phone numbers or instant messenger addresses to be off-limits to advertising for adult advertising products (i.e. pornography, gambling, alcohol and tobacco).

The percentage of children who receive inappropriate e-mail on a daily basis, according to Symantec Corp, is 80%. The percentage of sexual solicitations of children received over instant messenger or chat rooms, according to Pew Research, is 89%. Given these numbers it is not surprising to learn that 93% of parents believe spammers should face enhanced penalties for sending inappropriate content to children. Clearly, there is a need for this legislation.

That need was met in a bipartisan fashion in states where similar legislation was proposed. A registry bill was recently passed out of Georgia’s Senate unanimously. In Utah and Michigan, the registry bill was passed into law unanimously.

To be sure, some objections have been raised. The pornography industry, for instance, has called the legislation unconstitutional. But there is a precedent for creating such a registry. In a 1970 case, Rowan v. U.S. Post Office, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the constitutional rights of parents with children in their household who are under the age of 19 to register with the U.S. Post Office to prevent the delivery of adult matter to their mailbox. What Georgia’s and Michigan’s registry laws do–and what S.B. 46 would do for Connecticut–is simply extend that ruling to the online world.

It has also been said that the proposed registry would be too difficult to establish, too risky to maintain and too hard to enforce. But the same arguments were once raised against the do-not-call-lists that are now law. S.B. 46 will not conclusively solve the problem of spam or replace parents as the primary moral educators of their children, but it will give parents and schools a powerful tool for making the world safer for those children.

The Family Institute of Connecticut asks that you help those charged with protecting the innocence of Connecticut’s children by passing S.B. 46. Thank you.