DES MOINES, Iowa — A bill under consideration by Iowa lawmakers proposes that parents face punishment if their children are allowed access to pornographic content.Under the bill, House 443, and its companion bill, Senate File 271, parents whose children view adult content would be guilty of child abuse and earn placement on the state child abuse registry.

Since its initial proposition last week, House 443 has been a subject of controversy.

Supporters of the bill are saying that several existing bills of a similar nature contain loopholes exempting parents from accountability in obscenity distribution, and that child abuse has a direct relationship to pornography.

“This legislation isn’t the icing on the cake. It’s the cake,” said Kathy Lowenberg, director of counseling for Growth and Healing in Iowa City. “We have to have it.”

Lowenberg added that in her experience treating victims of child abuse, pornography plays a considerable role in most cases.

The bill’s critics claim the existing bills are effective, and that the bill is broad to the point that ”even a child who sneaks a peek at a Playboy magazine could push parents into legal turmoil,” according to the Des Moines Register.

“This would have the state intervening in families every time a parent drops their guard,” said Randall Wilson, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa. “You have adolescent hormones raging here, you have curiosity and I think, truth be told, you would find that a whole lot of kids would qualify as children in need of assistance who belong to perfectly normal families.”

Critics have also raised the issue of the bill’s stance on children viewing pornography inadvertently or without their parents’ knowledge. It is reported that the bill does not answer these and other questions.

“We need to do a lot more discussion,” said Sen. Becky Schmitz (D), “and be a little more specific about what we mean and the ramifications of it.”

My Comments

First of all, we can argue that this is a good idea just as easily as we can argue that this is a bad idea.

First, FOR:

This is good for the sole purpose of keeping porn out of kids hands. I imagine this bill is targeting really young kids, not teenagers. I imagine they want to keep their kids innocent just like you and I would want. 

AGAINST:

Wow, where do I even Begin!? Invasion of privacy, civil liberties, freedom of thought, political intervention of parenting, overbearing, and just plain stupid!

The first time I encountered porn was my dad’s Playboy magazines as a teenager – about 14 years old. I am not the only buy I know with that story to tell. We’re all normal people. It did not ruin us.

I have been working on adult websites for 9 years now and I have never seen this idea come up. Considering I work in the adult industry I am very aware of keeping this stuff out of the hands of kids, and I am also very aware of HOW to do it. Never have my kids seen anything related to my adult work. YouTube has shown them more mature themes than any other method yet there is no Bill tabled on that.

This legislation is a bad idea – period. There are so many people consuming adult material nowadays – videos, DVDs, websites and sex toys, pillows, gadgets etc – that it would be impossible to defend an innocent person and immeasurably easy to convict an innocent person. Consider what this law is trying to accomplish… It wants your home to be free of sexually themed paraphernalia. THAT is governing your interests. There is no way for you to have such things in your home and make it completely child-proof. You just can’t do it.

Imagine your home has nothing related to sex in it at all, on any level – BUT – you DO have a computer connected to the net. Well guess what – you now have ever sexual concept ever conceived of plugged right into your home. If any kid figures out that spelling YouTube.com produces a porn site, You’re Guilty, BAM, you lose. What are you guilty of? Nothing. No one is guilty of anything so what is there to punish that would require a law?

Here’s a Better Idea:

Instead of inventing ways to take children out of their home, come up with ways of IMPROVING the home. Wow, that’s a better idea!

Make parental education easily available. 
Let’s face it, some people became parent’s when they were not ready and they could use all the tips they can find. The 17 year old boy who knocked up his girlfriend does not understand the need to hide his porn collection from a baby – teach him!
There are some things that people just don’t think about until it’s pointed out to them, and this is likely one of them, because if you look at it otherwise you would be saying that there are parents who show the porn to kids. Ridiculous! Those aren’t parents, those are pedophiles and this law would never find them!

The better idea is to get smarter, not to get more laws. 
Society is falling apart and it’s ideas like this that accelerate the process.