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 '[a href="http://www.sltrib.com/ci_5778185"]financial flop[/a].'
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.
(Yes, they actually passed a law requiring mass email-senders to pay for a service from a specific private corporation. Sheer genius!)
Worse, Utah has spent $100,000 (so far) to defend the private company from legal challenges by free-speech, advertising, and porn interests. Lol, who could have seen that coming? Oh, wait, everybody.
I can't wait until some hacker gets his hands on this "children's registry". Making a central list of all children's email addresses must be a pervert's dream come true.
I swear, I don't what it is with Utah. Maybe it has something to do with a critical number of residents wearing [a href="http://www.mormon-underwear.com/"]magical underwear[/a]. Some boundary condition is met and insanity ensues...
