Utah Anti-Kids-Spam Registry "a Flop"

Eric Goldman writes "A couple of years ago Utah enacted a 'Child Protection Registry.' The idea was to allow parents to register kids' email addresses and then to require certain email senders to filter their lists against that database before sending their emails. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the Utah registry has been a 'financial flop.' Initially projected to generate $3-6 million in revenues for Utah, it has instead produced total revenues of less than $200,000. 80% of this has gone to Unspam, the for-profit registry operator; Utah's share of the registry's revenues has been a paltry $37,445. Worse, Utah has spent $100,000 (so far) to defend the private company from legal challenges by free-speech, advertising, and porn interests."

Just as well

[Anonymous McCartneyf]

This would never have made money for Utah.
Imagine: a database of genuine e-mail addresses belonging to minors. If there wasn't adequate enforcement, we'd get a large-scale equivalent of those "unsubscribe" links that don't.
Of course, enforcing a do-not-spam list for minors would cost something even if there weren't lawsuits against the existence of the list...

Welcome to

[iminplaya]

Utah [heraldextra.com]

Re:Let me get this straight

[PopeRatzo]

I always thought Utah was a bit religious, but freaking naive?

Have you ever been to Utah? I think it has something to do with a critical number of residents wearing magical underwear. Some boundary condition is met and insanity ensues.

I can't wait until some hacker gets his hands on this "children's registry". You haven't seen a marketing feeding frenzy until you've seen advertisers who think they've got a direct pipeline to the eyes and ears of "tweeners".

I remember how transfixed I used to get as a kid when the commercials for Duncan Yo-Yos or Slinkys came on TV. There was not going to be anything preventing me from getting a Yo-Yo and a Slinky. Today, it's a few levels of magnitude more intense. The marketing starts at age Zero. No kidding. You can't imagine the lengths a company will go to in order to create a lifelong customer. It's called "cradle to grave" marketing for a reason.

I'm English, so forgive the stupid question...

[WombatDeath]

...but is there something a bit mental about Utah politicians? They seem to crop up in the headlines doing all sorts of demented crap. Do they put lead in the water supply down there?

Re:Let me get this straight

[elanghe]

Where do you get the idea that Brent Hatch lobbied for this? At least provide the back ground to backup what you are saying.