Child-friendly anti-spam laws face opposition

Oh come on. There is no question that we need child friendly anti-spam laws and we need them now. How can anyone oppose this?

Last year, Utah and Michigan both passed spam registry laws designed to protect children from adult-oriented advertising. (Sex, booze, and gambling and not mortgages, Metamucil, and Depends.) The laws work almost identically in each state: parents can register the e-mail addresses of their children in the registry, and would-be advertisers are then required to ensure that addresses on their marketing lists do not appear in the registries. To most parents, it sounds promising: junior can have his or her own e-mail and AIM account for communicating with friends and parents need not fear that their children will be subjected to inappropriate spam (”daddy, why does this e-mail say my penis should be bigger?”).

Unfortunately, there are a lot of problems with the laws as written, and opposition is mounting (subscription required). [Read the rest]