West Virginia Gov. Cecil Underwood wanted to expand the penalties for getting porn into the hands of minors, but that proposal now seems to be dead. A state legislative conference committee's deadline on the proposed bill expired last week with no agreement in either direction.
"West Virginia is one of five states in the nation that does not have laws dealing with the distribution of pornography and harmful materials to minors," Underwood spokesman Rod Blackstone told the Charleston Gazette. "This is not about 17-year-olds and Playboys. This is about children and porn."
Lobbying by the West Virginia chapter of the Free Speech Coalition played a major role in stalling the bill.
The version in the state Senate raised penalties and made it a felony for distributing porn to minors knowingly; the state House version, said closer to Underwood's original proposal, formed a new misdemeanor charge for "distributing harmful matter" - including anything considered "harmful" for a minor to see, without meeting obscenity standards for adults.
The Underwood original defined as harmful matter what he called "pornography nudity" and sexually explicit behavior.
Among other questions, the state Senate Judiciary Committee mulled whether "harmful matter" was constitutional, with some wondering whether it would lead to arrests for leaving Playboy and similar softcore materials where minors could see them.
