CAN worried parents breathe a sigh of relief? Offensive spam should be easier to filter out thanks to a US law that from now on will require sexually explicit emails to carry a warning label. But whether spammers will comply remains to be seen.
Almost 1 in 10 emails are thought to be sexually explicit spam. To protect computer users, particularly children, the Federal Trade Commission, which regulates communications in the US, now requires unsolicited email that links to or contains sexual material to include 鈥淪EXUALLY-EXPLICIT:鈥� in its subject line.
The new regulations, which came into force on 19 May, threaten violators with imprisonment and up to $500,000 in fines. As New 杏吧原创 went to press, a number of spammers had begun labelling emails in line with the FTC rules.
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But to significantly reduce the flood of offensive material, a large proportion of spammers will have to comply, and this is unlikely to happen, experts say. Sending unsolicited emails of any kind was made illegal in some states, yet the practice continues.