Bill > HF489

Introduced Session

This bill relates to civil liability for commercial entities who publish or distribute material harmful to minors on the internet. The bill provides any commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally publishes or distributes material harmful to minors on the internet from a website that contains a substantial portion of such material shall be held civilly liable if the entity fails to perform reasonable age verification methods to verify the age of individuals attempting to access the material. Any commercial entity that is found in violation shall be civilly liable to an individual for damages resulting from a minor’s accessing the material, including court costs and reasonable attorney fees as ordered by the court. The bill provides that a commercial entity or third party that performs the required age verification shall not retain any identifying information of the individual after access has been granted to the material. A commercial entity that is found to have knowingly retained identifying information of the individual after access has been granted to the individual shall be civilly liable to the individual for damages resulting from retaining the identifying information, including court costs and reasonable attorney fees as ordered by the court. The bill provides that the requirements do not apply to any bona fide news or public interest broadcast, website video, report, or event and shall not be construed to affect the rights of any news-gathering organizations. No internet service provider, search engine, or cloud service provider shall be held to have violated the provisions of the bill to the extent such provider is not responsible for the creation of the content of the communication that constitutes material harmful to minors. The bill provides a civil remedy for a parent or legal guardian of a minor for damages in the amount of $75,000 for each violation, and the prevailing party shall be awarded court costs, reasonable attorney fees, and expert witness fees. The bill provides definitions for “commercial entity”, “distribute”, “material harmful to minors”, “minor”, “news-gathering organization”, “publish”, “reasonable age verification methods”, “substantial portion”, and “transactional data”.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Helena Hayes (R)*, 

Introduced, referred to Public Safety. H.J. 439. (on 02/28/2023)

Official Document