A US bill that would have required credit card statements to list sexually explicit content for such purchases over the Internet has been shelved. The House Committee on Corporations, Insurance and Banking in Virginia put off considering the bill from Republican Robert Marshall until next year, although it is considered unlikely to pass then. Marshall said that he had introduced the bill in an attempt to protect juveniles from Internet pornography, although he did not mention that it would have the added bonus of shaming the credit card holder if he left his statement lying around. Under the bill, Internet service providers would have to place warnings that their services offered access to areas containing sexually explicit material. In addition, charges added to credit cards for access to these sites would have to be marked as sexually explicit content on the statements. There was nothing within the bill saying how Internet providers would be able to tell if sexually explicit material was being viewed but the implication was that new monitoring systems would need to be introduced. The bill was largely written off by many in the banking industry. Michael Toalson, senior vice- president of government relations at the Virginia Bankers Association told the American Banker that the bill would have imposed impossible requirements for tracing Web site use. He added that there was no way for a bank to know when a juvenile has accessed a pornographic site. Although Visa International Inc said that while it was not aware of any similar legislation elsewhere, it thought proposed legislation that affects payment via the Internet is something that needs to be closely watched.
