Spam Label for Smut Proposed

Pornographic spam e-mail would have to be clearly labeled so Internet users could easily filter it out, under a rule proposed Wednesday by the Federal Trade Commission.

Unsolicited pornography would have to bear a label reading “Sexually-Explicit-Content:” in the subject line and the messages themselves would not be allowed to contain graphic material, the FTC said.

Outrage over unsolicited pornography and other forms of unsolicited e-mail spurred Congress to pass the first nationwide anti-spam law last year, which required the FTC to develop labels for smut.

Pornographers would not be allowed to include sexually explicit pictures in the body of the message, though they would be allowed to include hyperlinks to access their material.

The “Sexually-Explicit-Content:” label, although ungrammatical, will make it easier to block explicit content while letting through e-mail from anti-pornography groups that may use the phrase, the FTC said.

The public will have three weeks to comment on the proposal, which is due to take effect in mid-June.