I believe we should have a law that would make Congressmen criminally liable for voting in favor of legislation that clearly violates the Constitution or Bill of Rights, such as this little doozy. It does offer a fine lesson in unintended consequences though, as I will illustrate.

This is what the SAFE Act requires: Anyone providing an “electronic communication service” or “remote computing service” to the public who learns about the transmission or storage of information about certain illegal activities or an illegal image must (a) register their name, mailing address, phone number, and fax number with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s “CyberTipline” and (b) “make a report” to the CyberTipline that (c) must include any information about the person or Internet address behind the suspect activity and (d) the illegal images themselves. (By the way, “electronic communications service” and “remote computing service” providers already have some reporting requirements under existing law too.)

The definition of which images qualify as illegal is expansive. It includes obvious child pornography, meaning photographs and videos of children being molested. But it also includes photographs of fully clothed minors in overly “lascivious” poses, and certain obscene visual depictions including a “drawing, cartoon, sculpture, or painting.” (Yes, that covers the subset of anime called hentai).

Predictably, the law will have the opposite of its intended effect, in that in order to be safe from prosecution, it merely requires service providers to remain intentionally ignorant of the content sent using their service, which can only be to the benefit of the child pornographers the law is intended to fight.

As it is now, if I see clear and obvious child pornography sent via my employers Add To Phone service, I would naturally report it. Now I will have to intentionally remain ignorant unless I want to be forced to report anything even remotely questionable, like hentai or just a proud father’s picture of his daughter first learning to swim (OMG she has a bathing suit on, clearly this picture must be for sexual purposes). My remaining intentionally ignorant will allow actual child porn distributors free rein to use our service all they want without fear, thereby accomplishing the exact opposite of the law’s purpose and intention.

It’s all in a day’s work for our noble, principled legislators though!