FCC Takes Aim at ‘Dial-a-Porn’ Availability to Children

WASHINGTON —  The Federal Communications Commission, in a move against “dial-a-porn” services, Monday began an enforcement action against two California companies that allegedly have failed to take precautions to keep their messages away from children.

The action, the result of parents’ complaints, could result in fines of up to $50,000 for each day a violation occurs, an FCC spokesman said. A preliminary FCC inquiry “gives us reason to believe a serious violation of law has occurred,” he said.

In taking the action, the FCC sent letters to Intercambio Inc., of San Jose, and Audio Enterprises of Mill Valley, in Marin County, asking for a response to the complaints.

Looking for Response

FCC Chairman Dennis R. Patrick said the commission will not decide whether to levy a fine until it reviews the companies’ responses, but pledged: “The FCC will be diligent in enforcement against prohibited dial-a-porn activities.”

The FCC rules apply only to interstate calls. In California, the Public Utilities Commission is considering a proposal that would allow telephone customers to block their own access to dial-a-porn and other unwanted 976 and 900 numbers.

Wendy King, president of Audio Enterprises, did not return a phone message left with her answering service. Officials of Intercambio also could not be reached for comment.

Under FCC regulations in effect since April, 1986, dial-a-porn services are required to screen out calls from minors by requiring callers to use an access code or to prepay with a credit card. The FCC says that such services also can scramble their sexually explicit messages electronically so that they can be heard only by someone who has a descrambling device.

Greg Vogt, chief of the FCC’s common carrier bureau, said it appeared that the two companies were making “absolutely no effort to comply” with these regulations.

Action by Courts

Earlier FCC rules regulating dial-a-porn services had been overturned by federal courts on constitutional grounds and FCC officials have expressed concern recently that the new rules were not being heeded by message providers.

The parents who submitted the complaints about the two companies were not identified to protect the privacy of the minors involved, the FCC said. But it said that in one complaint, a parent said he found his 13-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter listening with friends to an Audio Enterprises dial-a-porn message. Two days later, the parent wrote, one of the friends and his brother molested the young girl.

The FCC initiated a similar action against another dial-a-porn service last year but the company stopped the service after it received the initial FCC letter, Vogt said. Five other cases have been referred to the Justice Department.