PASADENA, Calif. — A new California law that requires all psychotherapists and other professionals to report to law enforcement any patient who has ever seen child pornography online is facing a legal challenge.
A group of California therapists is suing the California Attorney General over AB 1775, which was signed into law last year.
Mandatory reporters such as psychologists, doctors and teachers always have been required to report such incidents, but the bill updated the language to include Internet porn.
According to the piece of legislation, the law now provides reporting responsibilities that “includes a person who knowingly downloads, streams, or accesses through any electronic or digital media, a film, photograph, videotape, video recording, negative, or slide in which a child is engaged in an act of obscene sexual conduct.”
Attorney Mark Hardiman, who is suing the state and Los Angeles County over AB 1775, called the law “overbroad” and doesn’t address the imminent threat of the “horrible exploitation of children.”