Revised Utah Porn ‘Warning Label’ Bill Passes State Legislature

A Utah bill requiring that every online porn video streamed in the state include a “warning label” has passed the state Senate, after being approved in a House committee less than a month ago, and now awaits approval from Republican Governor Gary Herbert. But the version of the bill approved by the legislature has been considerably diluted from its original version. When the bill was introduced earlier this year by GOP state rep Brady Brammer, it would have required any video defined as “pornography” to be preceded by a 15-second warning, explaining the supposed harms caused by porn to minors. The bill defined “pornography” as any material depicting “nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or sadomasochistic abuse.”  The version approved last week requires that the warning, which now must stay on screen for five second rather than 15, be attached only to videos that meet the standards of “obscenity,” according to a report by KTSU News in Salt Lake City.  But the definition of “obscenity” remains vague and subjective, though Brammer said that in his definition, “obscenity is really the worst of the worst." Defining “obscenity” would likely mean that each case of a potential violation of the warning label law could require a lawsuit against the supposedly offending site, according to the KTSU report. Brammer said that he expected citizens, rather than the state government, to bring the suit against porn sites. But the law itself would likely become the quick target of a First Amendment lawsuit, according to a statement issued by the Free Speech Coalition, which advocates for the adult industry. The bill “remains a landmine of First Amendment issues. Affixing a state-mandated warning to an adult film, which enjoys First Amendment protections, is fundamentally different from doing the same to a food product, which does not,” the statement read. Advocates of the bill had compared it to California’s “toxic warning” label law, which requires that food products containing possibly harmful ingredients come with warning labels. Democratic Utah state Senator Kathleen Riebe said that she supported the idea behind the bill, but voted against it because it would simply be unenforceable.  “I don’t think there’s enough capabilities of us to enforce this law, and I don’t think there’s enough ability of us to prevent complaints from coming in that aren’t justified,” she said. Photo By Jkinsocal / Wikimedia Commons