PHOENIX — Would many Arizonans be willing to pay $20 to get and keep access to internet sites that feature porn or ads for prostitutes? What if they knew that money could help build a wall along the border with Mexico?
That’s the idea behind House Bill 2444.
Introduced by Rep. Gail Griffin, R-Hereford, it would require that all electronic devices sold or leased in the state that can access the internet to have a filter to block obscene materials. That includes a specific definition of those items that appeal to the prurient interest, depicts sexual activity in a “patently offensive way” and, taken as a whole “lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.”
What also would have to be blocked are websites that facilitate prostitution and those that allow people to view “revenge porn,” essentially naked pictures of someone put online without their permission, often by a former lover.
All that would have to be blocked with “active and properly operating” software that makes it impossible to view materials defined as “obscene.”
But here’s the thing: HB 2444 would allow those who still want to view those materials to pay a one-time $20 fee to the Arizona Commerce Authority.
Those dollars would go into a newly established John McCain Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation Fund, which the bill would create if signed into law.
And that fund would provide grants to help victims of sex trafficking, ranging from employment and education training to building a wall along the state’s border with Mexico.
Griffin, questioned Tuesday about the bill, said it was not her idea but came from a constituent who was not identified.
And now, with media scrutiny, Griffin said as far as she’s concerned the measure isn’t going anywhere this year.
