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House Bill Requires IT Reps To Report Child Pornography

healthsciences.utah.edu

Republican Rep. Craig Hall of West Valley City said he plans to introduce H.B. 155 during the legislative session that begins Monday. The bill would require computer technicians to report child pornography they discover on someone's computer to officials or they could face jail time.

Hall said he began working on the proposal after he noticed similar laws in other states. There are at least 12 states that require computer technicians or IT workers to report child pornography if they encounter it in the scope of their employment.   

  

“The laws in my proposed bill don’t require technicians to search for the illegal material,” he said. “Only to report the child pornography if they have come across it in the scope of their employment.”

The Utah bill would require computer technicians to report child pornography to law enforcement or a federal cyber tip line.

“The statute is only triggered if the image meets the statutory definition of child pornography,” he said.

Hall said only images that are sexually explicit in nature would warrant technicians to report the pictures.

 

“In other words, a photo of a baby in the bathtub would not trigger mandatory reporting,” he said.