House State Affairs Committee advances bill to restrict minors’ access to certain ‘indecent exhibitions’ after hours of testimony

The House State Affairs Committee voted to send House Bill 230, described in testimony as a measure to restrict minors’ access to “indecent exhibitions,” to the House floor with a due-pass recommendation after public and expert testimony for and against the bill.

Committee sponsor Rep. Ted Hill, a Republican from District 14, told the committee that “House Bill 230 creates a duty of care for organizers, hosts and performers of indecent exhibitions to take reasonable steps to restrict the access of minors.” Hill said the bill is intended as a time, place and manner regulation and “adults can still host, organize and perform indecent exhibitions so long as they check IDs at the door.”

The bill’s primary legal framework, Edward Clark of the Idaho Family Policy Center told the committee, uses the Federal Communications Commission’s indecency standard. Clark summarized that the standard requires both “indecent conduct” and conduct that “would be patently offensive to an average person applying contemporary community standards.” He also described three affirmative defenses added after stakeholder meetings: a host may avoid liability if it holds a legally…