House again passes "child safety" legislation

Once again, the ever-vigilant House of Representatives has passed a bill (the Children's Safety and Violent Crime Reduction Act) containing a provision that will bring any movie "that contains a simulated sex scene...under the same government-filing requirements that adult films have to meet." Were the bill to pass the Senate, it would require movie studios to file an affidavit with the government for each simulated sex scene, listing the names and ages of the actors who appear. When the films appeared on DVD, each one would feature a sticker, certifying that the movie complied with the filing laws, and giving information about where the affidavits could be found. While the reason for such a system regulating pornography is abundantly clear, applying it to the simulated sex scenes found in mainstream film and television seems like an outrageous overreach, not to mention a massive waste of time (someone, after all, is going have to fill out all those forms). In addition, the measure has drawn protests from the MPAA (!) and SAG, among others, who feel that the proposed regulation "is a bad idea for legitimate business and could actually undo the current adult-film industry reporting requirements as it is likely to face a court challenge if it becomes law."

When the House passed a similar bill last year, the presence of a hate crimes element made it difficult to deal with, and the measure never came up in the Senate; there is no such element in this bill.