"It doesn't matter what you think of these new laws," explained Anne P. Mitchell, President and CEO of the Institute and a Professor of Internet Law at Lincoln Law School of San Jose, "they are both in effect right now. Like them or not, they are real, they are out there, and they'll get you. Michigan's law went into effect two weeks ago, and Utah's became effective on July 15th. Both registries are now fully operational and accepting email addresses, and if you send unpermitted email to an address on either registry, you'll get nailed."

"Michigan is going to start enforcing their law against email senders in less than two weeks," Mitchell emphasized.

The new Michigan and Utah "Child Protection Registry" laws were both passed last year, but under the terms of the laws each state had a year to put the process in place and get the registries up and running. Individuals may place on the registries any email address "to which a minor may have access". Schools and other organizations which provide services to children may also register entire Internet domains. Both laws are controversial, and Mitchell says that there is a lot of misinformation swirling around the two laws.

"We're seeing three big areas of misconception," said Mitchell. "First, email senders think that the laws don't apply to them because they don't send spam. But these laws are not at all about spam, they are about content which is unpermitted for minors, even if the email is requested. Even if the email is paid for!"

"We're seeing three big areas of misconception," said Mitchell. "First, email senders think that the laws don't apply to them because they don't send spam. But these laws are not at all about spam, they are about content which is unpermitted for minors, even if the email is requested. Even if the email is paid for!"

"We're seeing three big areas of misconception," said Mitchell. "First, email senders think that the laws don't apply to them because they don't send spam. But these laws are not at all about spam, they are about content which is unpermitted for minors, even if the email is requested. Even if the email is paid for!"

Once an email address is on one of the registries, commercial emailers are prohibited from sending it anything containing advertising, or even just linking to advertising, for a product or service that a minor is otherwise legally prohibited from accessing, such as alcohol, tobacco, gambling, prescription drugs, or adult-rated material. In order to ensure that they don't send unpermitted material to any email address on one of the registries, email senders are required to match their mailing lists against the registries on a monthly basis, for which they must pay both Michigan and Utah a per-email-address fee.

In addition to state attorneys general, individual citizens and ISPs may both bring lawsuits against email senders whom they believe to have violated either law.

"We can't emphasize enough how seriously commercial email senders should take these laws," added Mitchell. "At the very least, senders need to make sure that their choice as to whether to comply or not is an informed, educated decision. The penalties for non-compliance with these laws can be very serious."

The Institute conducted a teleseminar dealing with the new child protection registry laws last week, in an effort to help email marketers and other commercial email senders understand what they need to do in order to avoid running afoul of the new laws. According to ISIPP the seminar was very well attended, and participants had a lot of questions about the new laws.

An audio recording and written transcript of the seminar, along with seminar materials, is available at the ISIPP website at http://www.isipp.com.

ISIPP has also updated their Email Sender Accreditation program (the IADB) so that senders who choose to do so can identify themselves as complying with the new Michigan and Utah laws. ISIPP's IADB allows receiving email systems to check on an email sender's credentials in real time including, now, whether they are complying with the new Child Protection Registry laws. Dozens of ISPs and spam filters, representing more than 400million inboxes, use the IADB's data to help make email processing and delivery decisions.

Email senders interested in ordering the audio and written transcript of ISIPP's July 7th teleseminar on "Child Protection Email Address Registry Compliance" can do so at http://www.isipp.com.

Information about ISIPP's IADB Email Senders Accreditation Program, which includes Child Protection Registry compliance notification, is available at http://www.isipp.com/iadb.php.

The Utah Child Protection Registry is at https://www.utahkidsregistry.com.

The Michigan Child Protection Registry is at https://www.protectmichild.com.