Bill > HB1839

This bill establishes new rules for commercial entities that publish or distribute material harmful to minors online, defining "sexual material harmful to minors" as content that appeals to prurient interests, is patently offensive to minors, and lacks serious value for them. Commercial entities, defined as any legally recognized business, must use a third party to verify that individuals attempting to access websites where more than one-third of the content is deemed harmful to minors are at least eighteen years old, using methods like digital identification or commercial age-verification systems that rely on public or private transactional data. Importantly, the third party performing this age verification cannot keep any identifying information from individuals. The bill exempts bona fide news organizations and public interest broadcasts from these requirements, and internet service providers, search engines, and cloud service providers are not liable if they are not responsible for creating the harmful content. The Attorney General is empowered to enforce these provisions, seeking damages, injunctions, and civil penalties of up to $10,000 per day for violations of age-verification requirements, $10,000 per instance for retaining identifying information, and up to $250,000 if minors access harmful material due to non-compliance.