New bill will charge people a fee to unblock porn sites; proceeds to fund border wall

PHOENIX (FOX 10) -- A new bill proposed in the Arizona State Legislature will require all digital devices that can access the internet to include porn blockers.

House Bill 2444 is proposed by State Rep. Gail Griffin. She represents District 14, a Southeastern Arizona district that covers all of Cochise and Greenlee Counties, along with southern portions of Graham County and eastern portions of Pima County.

According to the bill, products that make content accessible on the internet cannot be made, sold, leased, distributed or made in the state unless it contains blocking softwares that blocks obscene materials by default, should the bill be approved and signed into law.

The bill also contains detailed description of what is considered to be "obscene material".

Under the bill, people who wish to deactivate the blocking software must make a request to the person or company that distributed the device, present ID to prove he or she is at least 18, and, among other things, pay a deactivation fee of at least $20 to the Arizona Commerce Authority. The fees will then go to a fund that will finance a number of initiatives via grants, including the building of a border wall between Mexico and Arizona, or fund border security.

The fund, according to the bill, will also provide grants to programs that prevent and protect victims of domestic trafficking. The bill will also make deactivating the blocker by other means a crime.

According to the bill, it requires at least a two-thirds majority of the State House and State Senate, per the state's constitution. The State Legislature's website only shows Griffin as the prime sponsor of the bill.