New legislation that would impose strict controls on access to websites featuring adult content and levy a 25-percent excise tax on all adult entertainment on the Web will be introduced Wednesday by nine Democratic lawmakers from the House and Senate.
Senators Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), and Ken Salazar (D-Colo.), along with U.S. Representatives Jim Matheson (D-Utah) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) plan to announce the Internet Safety and Child Protection Act of 2005 at a press conference in the U.S. Capitol at 11 a.m. Eastern time.
The bill is a pet project for Lincoln, whose plan to introduce it July 20 was preempted by President George W. Bush’s nomination of Judge John G. Roberts Jr. to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court.
A final version of the proposed legislation was not available Tuesday and Lincoln and her staff were unavailable for comment, but a draft of the bill obtained by AVNOnline.com July 19 placed primary responsibility for its enforcement in the hands of the Federal Trade Commission. Violations of the proposed legislation would be treated as violations of the section of the FTC Act that deals with unfair and deceptive trade practices.
The draft bill not only sought to fund its own enforcement and other child-protection efforts by levying a 25-percent tax on all Internet pornography transactions, but also mandated that “regulated pornographic websites” use “software certified for that purpose” to verify all users attempting to access the sites are 18 years of age or older. Although the concept of certified age-verification software was left undefined in the draft legislation, a “regulated pornographic website” was defined as “a person required to maintain documents verifying the age of persons engaged in sexually explicit conduct pursuant to section 2257(a) of title 18, United States Code.”
The draft bill also includes a provision mandating “a bank, credit card company, third-party merchant, Internet Payment Service Provider, or business that performs financial transactions for a regulated pornographic website shall only process age-verified Internet pornography credit card transactions for sales. ...” If that provision survives and the bill clears the House and Senate and is signed into law, it could prohibit such billing mechanisms as online checks, dialers, prepaid access cards, and SMS payments for electronic adult content in the U.S.
Lincoln, a second-term Democrat, considers the legislation important “as a parent, not as a politician,” her press secretary, Drew Goesl, said at the time. “In her eyes, [the bill is] necessary to make the Internet safer for kids.” According to a prepared statement about Wednesday’s press conference, “Lincoln said that it's time the costs of protecting our children online shift from the American taxpayer to the actual purveyors of online porn.”
Lincoln's legislation will be introduced in coordination with the release of a report by Third Way, which describes itself as “a strategy center for progressives.” Lincoln serves as an Honorary Senate Chair for the group. Called “The Porn Standard: Children and Pornography on the Internet,” the report purports to “expose a number of alarming findings on the access of online pornography by children.” In fact, it is primarily a review of related literature published by mainstream media, research firms, the U.S. Department of Justice, and religious organizations. Among the report’s conclusions:
- A large and lucrative Internet pornography industry is flooding the Web and seeking mainstream acceptance.
- Despite the availability of “foolproof” age verification systems, children have easy access to pornography online and are now among the main viewers of Internet pornography.
- Elements of the adult industry directly target children for viewing online pornography and for performing illegal acts in pornographic videos.
- Children are viewing online pornography and being solicited by sexual predators without the knowledge of their parents.
The report states the electronic adult entertainment industry should be held to the same age-verification standards and be required to use the same age-verification software now employed by online tobacco and alcohol retailers. (Credit card companies no longer will process transactions for Internet tobacco sales.) It also recounts the criminal cases against several notorious online predators and child pornographers as support for Third Way’s position: That government’s traditional ambivalence toward regulating the Internet and its “hands-off approach has given us the ‘porn standard’ – a minimal, wink-and-nod effort to put a wall between clearly adult material and children. The staggering levels of on-line sexual exploitation of children, either through viewing of or participating in the production of pornographic material, demands that government get off the sidelines.”
Third Way’s Shawn Barney, author of the report, declined to comment about it on the record, and Matt Bennett, vice president for public affairs at Third Way, did not return phone calls.
