State legislators will be asked to consider a bill that would require computer repair technicians to report to police any content they find on a customer's computer that might involve child pornography or abuse.

Sen. Bill Diamond, D-Windham and chairman of the Legislature's Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee, said his committee will draft such a bill for the coming session.

"In Maine, we have a law that if doctors, teachers or commercial film developers observe any form of child abuse or pornography, they have to report that to law enforcement," Diamond said.

"If we require all these other professionals to report something that is absolutely against the law, the people who possibly come across this more than others should have to report it," he said.

Diamond said the technicians would not make judgments about what is or is not legal, but would refer the information to law enforcement to determine whether a criminal case is warranted. A handful of other states already have such a requirement, he said.

The plan has opponents.

The Maine Civil Liberties Union says such a law would effectively deputize computer repair technicians and give them powers beyond what the constitution gives to law enforcement.

"There may be information on someone's computer that a law-abiding person might want to keep private," said Shenna Bellows, executive director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union. "That might include business or trade secrets, business, financial or medical information."

"To turn computer repairmen into spies, to enlist them in reviewing the private contents of the computers they repair, undermines our fourth amendment freedom from unreasonable search and seizure," she said.