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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Utah's consumer protection office is changing how it releases documents to the public after a state employee revealed e-mail addresses of four minors on the Child Protection Registry.
As many as four people will review public requests for information to ensure private information is protected, Department of Commerce Director Francine Giani said. That's up from one.
The registry is intended to keep sexually explicit e-mails and advertisements for gambling, alcohol, tobacco and drugs from reaching children.
A Utah Division of Consumer Protection employee inadvertently included the minors' e-mail addresses when sending out requested copies of citations to four Internet companies.
"We made a mistake. I apologize for that. I make no excuses. It will allow us to (improve) the process we had in place," Giani said.
The mistake became known because the Free Speech Coalition, a California-based pornography trade group, is challenging the registry. The coalition detailed that the e-mail addresses were public information in papers filed in U.S. District Court Thursday.
Coalition attorney Jerome Mooney said Friday that putting registry e-mail addresses on citations defeats the purpose of the program.
He said having more people reviewing open records requests will increase the likelihood of a security breach.
"Any time people have access to sensitive information, it is at risk. The more information, the more people, the greater the risk," he said. "The whole thing is so silly and in the end it doesn't accomplish anything."
The four companies cited last month for violating the child protection registry law include: DOS Media Now, an Encinitas, Calif., online gambling site; Golden Arch Casinos, of Overland Park, Kan.; Smoothbeer.com, a United Kingdom beer company, and SoftestGirls.com, a Singapore company that sent pornographic e-mails to Utah minors.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
