Amendment Would Expand Porn Reporting Law To IT WorkersAmendment Would Expand Porn Reporting Law To IT Workers

Last summer, South Carolina enacted a law that requires computer technicians to report child pornography to law-enforcement officials when they find it during the course of their work. This week, a similar piece of legislation will be proposed in Illinois, although with a more tempered approach.

Rep. James Durkin says this week he will introduce an amendment to an existing Illinois law that requires film developers to report child pornography when they find it on the job. Durkin, a Republican who's running for the U.S. Senate, says the amendment was prompted by a discussion he had with an Illinois police detective who has worked on many child pornography cases. The detective had spoken with numerous computer technicians who were reluctant to report child pornography because they believed confidentiality agreements with clients prohibited them from releasing any information to law enforcement. The proposed legislation is intended to remove any obstacles to reporting child pornography, he says, but it will not ask IT workers to dig through hard drives. "You should not be in there looking for it," Durkin says.

Durkin is proposing penalties similar to those for Illinois film developers who fail to report child pornography: a business offense with fines of up to $1,000. "This is a work in progress," he says of the legislation, pointing out that the General Assembly will want to discuss definitions--such as determining who qualifies as a computer technician. In contrast, the South Carolina requirement had no legislative debate and was incongruously tucked into an amendment to a law that mandates education standards for day-care workers.

But what about the possibility that reporting requirements for IT might increase the likelihood of mistakenly accusing a customer or co-worker? Says Durkin: "I think most people can understand the difference between pornography and child pornography." Making that distinction isn't always easy, however. For example, a New Jersey woman was arrested last year at a film developer, only to have authorities discover that her "child pornography" consisted of photos of her grandchildren who'd just emerged from a bath.

Another issue is computer-generated child pornography, which can make reporting requirements even more complicated for IT workers, says Mark Schreiber, an attorney with Boston law firm Palmer & Dodge LLP. The Supreme Court is considering whether the computer-generated images of children engaged in sexual activity should be classified as illegal child pornography.

Such issues make Schreiber question the need for reporting requirements for computer technicians. "It's really not part of their job," he says. "I just think it's the wrong place to put the burden."