A third state children’s e-mail address registry looks to be on the way.
Ignoring a recent letter from the Federal Trade Commission attacking a failed bill he sponsored this year, Illinois state Rep. Jack Franks, D-Woodstock, plans to reintroduce the bill into the state assembly in January in an attempt to establish a so-called child-protection e-mail address registry.
Franks’ original bill died in committee.
Illinois would be the third state to set up a so-called child protection e-mail address registry.
A spokeswoman for Franks, who wished not to be named, confirmed that he is working on redrafting his bill and that it will be substantially similar to laws already passed in Utah and Michigan.
Those two states passed laws in August allowing parents or legal guardians to place children's e-mail addresses or other “contact points” on child protection registries, making it illegal for marketers to send to registered addresses messages that promote or link to products or content it is illegal for minors to buy.
Marketers of material aimed at adults—even non-pornographic products such as wine, for example—would be required to scrub their lists of names on the registries once a month in order to ensure they would avoid sending messages to registered addresses.
In a letter attacking Franks’ original bill, HB 0572, last week, the FTC said it “may provide pedophiles and other dangerous persons with a list of contact points for Illinois children.”
Moreover, the letter said: “E-mail addresses on the proposed registry are unlikely to receive less spam and may actually receive more spam, including adult content.”
Since Franks intends his new bill to be similar to those in Utah and Michigan, it is unlikely it will allay any of the FTC’s fears.
The FTC published its concerns as the result of a request by Illinois state Rep. Angelo Saviano, R-River Grove. Saviano reportedly opposes establishing a children’s e-mail address registry in Illinois.
Marketers also oppose such registries for, among other things, the costs they impose.
Utah's registry costs marketers $5 per thousand addresses checked. Michigan's was postponed because the law mistakenly put a ceiling on the price that was too low for its registry to be viable. However, it was to go live as early as yesterday depending on whether Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed a bill lifting the registry’s price ceiling.
Once live, Michigan’s registry will charge marketers $7 per thousand addresses checked.
As a result, it will cost a marketer with 1 million e-mail addresses $60,000 a year to use Utah’s registry and $84,000 a year to use Michigan’s. It is unknown how much it would cost to use Illinois’ registry if it is established, but clearly it won’t take too many states to establish such registries before commercial e-mail containing anything unsuitable for children, such as news of the latest Bordeaux or R-rated movie, isn’t worth the cost or risk involved.
“The proposed registry would likely impose substantial costs on legitimate e-mail marketers,” said the FTC’s letter. “Combined with the prospect of substantial criminal and civil liability for individual violations, the extra burden that HB 0572 would place on Internet sellers may, therefore, hamper a particularly competitive segment of merchants in those industries covered by HB 0572, curtail the benefits of such competition to consumers, and cause consumers to no longer receive information that they value.”
