Lamar Senator Wants To Keep Kids Off Porn Sites

A Missouri Senate committee is considering legislation that aims to keep kids away from pornographic websites. The concept is similar to televisions with parental control settings for certain channels.

Senator Ed Emery of Lamar is proposing a bill that would require internet companies block children from opening obscene websites.The pornography industry is going to continue to try to get to our children and our families. We have to look at it as what can we do that actually can be adjusted to address the needs of families who want to be protected.

His bill would let parents create a password to access such pages. In addition, parents who give their kids the password could be found guilty of a misdemeanor under Senate Bill 382.

Emery calls his bill a work in progress.

We still have a lot of work to do on it (the bill). It’s still definitely a work in progress, but it mandates that these filters have to be on devices.

Some internet company representatives have told Emery there’s still a lot of work to be done to his bill and such a law could include a fee for customers. Under the measure, internet companies that purposely fail to block the content or are made aware of unblocked obscene content and fail to block such websites within 5 days could be found guilty of a misdemeanor.

The Senate committee has not yet voted on the measure.