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ESPC Goes After Utah’s Child Protection Registry
John Stith
Staff Writer
2006-01-25
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
The Email Sender and Provider Coalition (ESPC) along several other organizations, announced on Wednesday they were filing an application of amici curiae against the Utah Child Protection Registry Act.
In conjunction with the American Advertising Federation, the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the Association of National Advertisers, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Center for Democracy and Technology, the ESPC is challenging Utah's law on a number of levels.
The groups say that while the Utah law means well, the Utah law not only goes to far, it stands to weaken the federal CAN-SPAM Act. According to the group, the law seeks to protect minors from services and products they can't legally purchase by creating a "Do Not Email" registry. This registry contains email addresses belonging to minors. The Act requires email marketers to compare their lists against the registry for a fee and implements enforcement methods for senders who don't comply.
The ESPC said in their statement:
The ESPC and the email industry applaud Utah's intentions, however, they believe that the Act is extremely flawed in many ways. Several security concerns arise when examining the registry technology, which may actually expose email addresses belonging to minors rather than sealing them from predators and illegal spammers. The Federal Trade Commission has opined on numerous occasions that such registries: (a) are not feasible; (b) increase the prevalence of unsolicited email messages; and (c) expose our nation's children to even more inappropriate content. The broad language in this bill could also chill speech in all types of electronic communications.
"Three strong advertising associations, a leading email association and two consumer advocacy/online privacy organizations coming together is a rare and powerful coalition," said Trevor Hughes, executive director of the Email Sender and Provider Coalition. "The fact that we have come together so strongly is testament to the gravity of our concerns about this Act."
They also point out the federal government had already established a national SPAM standard with the CAN-SPAM Act. They feel Utah law offers a different standard and will inevitably conflict with the federal law.
"This law aims to squelch speech, going far beyond the usual panoply of sin for which it aims, encompassing all sorts of communications that the state hardly needs to baby sit," said Kurt Opsahl, Staff Attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation.
"On its face, Utah's law could encompass services such as body piercing, as that requires parental consent; hotels and credit cards, as minors can't legally contract for them; or car rentals, because minors don't get a full license until age 18. Worse yet, the email registry is as likely as not to expose children to more unwanted spam or other email from unscrupulous parties."
"It's been stated time and time again by the Federal Trade Commission and other legislators that ‘Do Not Email' solutions do not and will not work," said Dan Jaffe, Executive Vice President, Association of National Advertisers. " Spammers, phishers and other fraudulent senders are rule breakers and will not comply with the legislation. We look forward to finding a solution to this epidemic that doesn't harm kids, and hope that Utah will further their progress and take the measures necessary to find that real answer."
It should be interesting to see how this plays out because it could easily end up with the Supreme Court. This could take time to play out in the courts however as Utah's attorney general gears up for a battle.
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About the Author:
John is a staff writer for SecurityProNews covering cyber security.
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