SOUTHEASTERN NC — Resolutions prohibiting porn on government-owned devices have been popping up on local board agendas in recent weeks, as local governments work to adopt regulations to comply with a new law that went into effect earlier in the fall.
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The North Carolina General Assembly passed a human trafficking awareness bill in July, which went into effect on Oct. 1. The bill primarily covers awareness training and reporting, and victim confidentiality. However, one section prohibits pornographic material from government-owned devices and networks. This includes government- and school-administered phones, laptops, and desktops, as well as personal devices connected to a government network.
Due to the bill’s passing, all local governments are required to update their policies, or implement new ones, in accordance with the bill. In recent weeks, resolutions were passed by the Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, City of Wilmington, Town of Oak Island, Wrightsville Beach, Town of Leland and Surf City.
State Representative Wayne Sasser (District 67) was a sponsor of the bill and said the entire bill’s intent is to hold establishments accountable — lodging, restaurants, and governments alike.
“ It would be hard for the government to say: ‘You can’t have it on your device that you paid for,’ but if the government provides that device — that’s a no-brainer,” Sasser said. “ If there’s stuff on there that you don’t want on there, take it off.”
H.B. 971 defines porn as “any material depicting sexual activity,” which includes visual content like photos, drawings, and videos, but not written content. Recently added, AI and digitally generated images are also prohibited as of Dec. 1.
It does not define how viewing the content should be regulated and penalized, just that it needs to be.
Government employees, appointees, and elected officials have a deadline of Jan. 1 to “remove, delete, or uninstall” any and all pornographic material on their government-owned devices.
Port City Daily asked Sasser why a bill primarily targeting human trafficking needed to include a section about pornography on government devices.
“You kind of hit a funny nerve, but people are kind of just naive,” he explained. “So, you just put it in black and white and you say: ‘Yeah, you should have known this.”
Sasser said there likely wouldn’t be anyone willing to go on the record and confess outright that pornography on government devices has been an issue, but he added: “ Yeah, I mean, you know, it is.”
In the last decade, a D.C. news outlet reported almost 100 or so federal employees admitted to watching porn on government devices. One instance in 2018 led to the U.S. Geological Survey government network at the EROS Center being infected with malware.
North Carolina public agencies, judiciary branches and legislative branches at the local level are responsible for prohibiting employees, elected officials, appointees, and students from accessing pornographic material. The only exception is if government, law enforcement, or official researchers need to look at sexually explicit material as a part of their job — for example, in the instance a judge would have to view sexually explicit content that’s central to a sex crime trial.
Most entities already have similar measures in place, but local governments are required to update policies in accordance with the new law and exact disciplinary actions for violations. The measures are effective Jan. 1 and local governments are required to send annual reports of violations or attempted violations to the state chief information officer by Aug. 1.
New Hanover County amended its technology-use policy in August, stating there should be no expectation for privacy or confidentiality on county-owned devices and any pornographic material found should be deleted immediately. The devices are also subject to random monitoring at any time.
Brunswick County already has a policy in place that covers most of the mandate, according to spokesperson Meagan Kascsak, but there are plans to bring an amendment to county commissioners at the next regular meeting on Jan. 21.
The Town of Oak Island passed a resolution at Dec. 10’s council meeting, adding to its existing “Technology Appropriate Use Policy.” Employees are subject to disciplinary actions defined in the town’s personnel policy. Anyone who knows of a violation is required to inform the town manager. Should the person in violation be a town appointee, it will be reported to the council and they will be subject to removal.
There is no disciplinary measure defined for elected officials.
Council member Mark Martin questioned how the violations will actually be monitored, and whether or not it’s on the town to acquire technology that effectively tracks and reports violations.
“We can lock this technology down for town-owned devices, if we so choose,” he said.
Fellow council member Bill Craft agreed, saying a Big Brother-type monitoring system doesn’t seem realistic.
“Do we need to vote that this is a zero tolerance policy? Catch you one time and you’re subject to being dismissed?” Craft asked.
Town Clerk Lisa Stites stated there were some disciplinary measures in place with the current policy, but the state chief information officer should be sending updated guidelines to help with regulation strategies and writing up reports.
Town of Leland’s resolution from Dec. 19 includes similar policies as Oak Island’s, but town employees report violations to the IT director rather than the town manager. Appointees can also be removed from their position by the town council. Town spokesperson Jessica Jewell wrote in an email to PCD that their policy on how violations will be regulated cannot be shared — “to safeguard our cybersecurity and maintain the integrity of our systems.”
Pender County already blocks access to pornographic content on all government-owned devices, according to spokesperson Brandi Cobb, and no other course of action was commented on.
A Pender County beach town passed the resolution unanimously Friday. There is a penalty of suspension or dismissal without warning for employees that break general statutes in the Town of Surf City.
Human Resources Director Lydia King clarified to council electronic equipment able to connect to the town’s network is considered a “device” and therefore prohibited to view pornographic material per the mandate.
“Even if they’re in the lobby, you cannot be watching it on our network,” she said.
“You should not be looking at it — at all,” Mayor Teresa Batts said.
Sasser said the main intent of the bill isn’t to punish people — “but to create awareness and get as many people as possible involved in what’s going on.”
H.B. 971 also includes human trafficking awareness measures for lodging and restaurant establishments, requiring them to develop trafficking awareness training courses for employees and property managers, and implement policies for employees to report suspected trafficking incidents. The establishments also have to visibly display the National Human Trafficking Hotline information.
It also includes human trafficking training for county social services and child welfare staff, gives campus police criminal-database access for updated criminal trafficking information, and requires anyone with past violent sex crimes, human trafficking crimes, or child sexual exploitation crimes to disclose them in child custody battles.
In 2023, North Carolina was ranked ninth in the country for highest number of reported human trafficking cases. The National Human Trafficking Hotline identified a total of 235 trafficking cases in 2023, and found 394 victims in those cases — this only covers those that were reported to the hotline. 132 of the cases were sex trafficking, with most of those being commercial cases occurring in homes or other residences. Forty-nine cases were labor trafficking, occurring in restaurant and food service and domestic work, such as housekeeping. There were also 28 cases of combined sex and labor trafficking.
“It’s one of those things that people kind of don’t want to know about,” Sasser said. “But it is important that they know about it because it’s just the world we live in.”
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