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Proposed Law Requires Age Verification on Public Wi-Fi Networks

by Terrence O'Brien on February 7, 2008 at 03:27 PM

Utah Wants Age Verification on Public Wi-Fi Networks
We all know there's a lot of questionable content online, most notably pornography, and keeping kids from that content is a big priority for parents and social conservative groups everywhere. The question is how to do it. A Utah-based non-profit teamed up with a member of the State's House of Representatives to introduce a bill that would make pornography inaccessible at public Wi-Fi hot-spots with out age verification.

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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Tags: censorship, law, porn, pornography, utah, wi-fi, wifi, wireless

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