For months, the statement on a billboard greeted drivers as they arrived in Utah from Wyoming on Interstate 80, the massive letters printed across the portraits of several clean-cut men. The billboard is gone now, but Utah's governor was expected today to sign into law a bill created in its spirit, giving the state the country's first pornography czar. That person has little prosecutorial power, and no jurisdiction over the Internet or cable television. Pornography has been debated intensely in Utah, where 70 percent of the population belongs to the Mormon church. Lawmakers already have passed bills banning Playboy from prisons and preventing minors from viewing pornographic Web sites at public libraries.
Pornography actually is difficult to find in Utah.
A search through the yellow pages turns up a few listings for adult videos, and the adult bookstore most widely advertised in Salt Lake City is an hour away, in Evanston, Wyo. This seems to be a solution without a problem. Republican state Rep. Evan L. Olsen, who sponsored the legislation, said his constituents asked him about the state's obscenity standards after discovering their children surfing for cybersex. People are asking for help. Utah is apparently the first state to name a general porn czar, though other states, including California and New York, have teams or individuals responsible for investigating child pornography.