Proposed Law Requires Age Verification on Public Wi-Fi Networks
The bill would place responsibility on the wireless providers to verify age or face stiff fines -- even private citizens who have open access in their homes are susceptible to these fines. In other words, if a child next door leeches off your Wi-Fi network and accesses pornography through it, you could be fined $1,000.
XMission, a Salt Lake City based Wi-Fi provider has estimated that it would cost $5,000 per month to implement the verification process. Placing the burden of the verification process on the provider is considered unfair by many. If kids are dedicated enough, they'll always find a way around these road-blocks, and in this case it would be very easy since the specifics of the blockage would only affect sites hosted in the U.S. In our opinion, the best solution is for parents to actually parent and teach their children what is appropriate and apply the right amount of supervision to keep their kids out of trouble.
From ArsTechnica
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Steven @ Feb 25th 2008 3:26AM
Yeah this would be a very bad move that will be non-effective and will just cost money. If the social conservative Mormon groups want it done they should pay for it. Why is it that all these damn religious and quack groups come up with all these expensive non-effective ideas yet, don't want to bear the cost of their implementation? Isn't it enough that they provide ""FREE"" internet access?