[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3783 Reported in House (RH)]






                                                 Union Calendar No. 441
105th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 3783

                          [Report No. 105-775]

   To amend section 223 of the Communications Act of 1934 to require 
persons who are engaged in the business of selling or transferring, by 
  means of the World Wide Web, material that is harmful to minors to 
  restrict access to such material by minors, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 30, 1998

  Mr. Oxley (for himself, Mr. Greenwood, Mr. Manton, Mr. Gillmor, Mr. 
 Deal of Georgia, Mr. Whitfield, Mr. Norwood, Mrs. Cubin, Mr. Burr of 
North Carolina, and Mr. Upton) introduced the following bill; which was 
                 referred to the Committee on Commerce

                            October 5, 1998

  Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole 
       House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed
 [Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed 
                               in italic]
 [For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on April 
                               30, 1998]

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To amend section 223 of the Communications Act of 1934 to require 
persons who are engaged in the business of selling or transferring, by 
  means of the World Wide Web, material that is harmful to minors to 
  restrict access to such material by minors, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Child Online Protection Act''.

SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds that--
            (1) while custody, care, and nurture of the child resides 
        first with the parent, the widespread availability of the 
        Internet presents opportunities for minors to access materials 
        through the World Wide Web in a manner that can frustrate 
        parental supervision or control;
            (2) the protection of the physical and psychological well-
        being of minors by shielding them from materials that are 
        harmful to them is a compelling governmental interest;
            (3) to date, while the industry has developed innovative 
        ways to help parents and educators restrict material that is 
        harmful to minors through parental control protections and 
        self-regulation, such efforts have not provided a national 
        solution to the problem of minors accessing harmful material on 
        the World Wide Web;
            (4) a prohibition on the distribution of material harmful 
        to minors, combined with legitimate defenses, is currently the 
        most effective means by which to satisfy the compelling 
        government interest; and
            (5) notwithstanding the existence of protections that limit 
        the distribution over the World Wide Web of material that is 
        harmful to minors, parents, educators, and industry must 
        continue efforts to protect children from dangers posed by the 
        Internet.

SEC. 3. REQUIREMENT TO RESTRICT ACCESS BY MINORS TO MATERIALS SOLD BY 
              MEANS OF THE WORLD WIDE WEB THAT ARE HARMFUL TO MINORS.

    Part I of title II of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 201 
et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following new section:

``SEC. 231. RESTRICTION OF ACCESS BY MINORS TO MATERIALS SOLD BY MEANS 
              OF WORLD WIDE WEB THAT ARE HARMFUL TO MINORS.

    ``(a) Requirement To Restrict Access.--
            ``(1) Prohibited conduct.--Whoever, in interstate or 
        foreign commerce, by means of the World Wide Web, knowingly 
        makes any communication for commercial purposes that includes 
        any material that is harmful to minors, without restricting 
        access to such material by minors pursuant to subsection (c), 
        shall be fined not more than $50,000, imprisoned not more than 
        6 months, or both.
            ``(2) Intentional violations.--In addition to the penalties 
        under paragraph (1), whoever intentionally violates such 
        paragraph shall be subject to a fine of not more than $50,000 
        for each violation. For purposes of this paragraph, each day of 
        violation shall constitute a separate violation.
            ``(3) Civil penalty.--In addition to the penalties under 
        paragraphs (1) and (2), whoever violates paragraph (1) shall be 
        subject to a civil penalty of not more than $50,000 for each 
        violation. For purposes of this paragraph, each day of 
        violation shall constitute a separate violation.
    ``(b) Inapplicability of Carriers and Other Service Providers.--For 
purposes of subsection (a), a person shall not be considered to make 
any communication for commercial purposes to the extent that such 
person is--
            ``(1) a telecommunications carrier engaged in the provision 
        of a telecommunications service;
            ``(2) a person engaged in the business of providing an 
        Internet access service;
            ``(3) a person engaged in the business of providing an 
        Internet information location tool; or
            ``(4) similarly engaged in the transmission, storage, 
        retrieval, hosting, formatting, or translation (or any 
        combination thereof) of a communication made by another person, 
        without selection or alteration of the content of the 
        communication, except that such person's deletion of a 
        particular communication or material made by another person in 
        a manner consistent with subsection (c) or section 230 shall 
        not constitute such selection or alteration of the content of 
        the communication.
    ``(c) Affirmative Defense.--
            ``(1) Defense.--It is an affirmative defense to prosecution 
        under this section that the defendant, in good faith, has 
        restricted access by minors to material that is harmful to 
        minors--
                    ``(A) by requiring use of a credit card, debit 
                account, adult access code, or adult personal 
                identification number; or
                    ``(B) by any other reasonable measures that are 
                feasible under available technology.
            ``(2) Protection for use of defenses.--No cause of action 
        may be brought in any court or administrative agency against 
        any person on account of any activity that is not in violation 
        of any law punishable by criminal or civil penalty, and that 
        the person has taken in good faith to implement a defense 
        authorized under this subsection or otherwise to restrict or 
        prevent the transmission of, or access to, a communication 
        specified in this section.
    ``(d) Privacy Protection Requirements.--
            ``(1) Disclosure of information limited.--A person making a 
        communication described in subsection (a)--
                    ``(A) shall not disclose any information collected 
                for the purposes of restricting access to such 
                communications to individuals 17 years of age or older 
                without the prior written or electronic consent of--
                            ``(i) the individual concerned, if the 
                        individual is an adult; or
                            ``(ii) the individual's parent or guardian, 
                        if the individual is under 17 years of age; and
                    ``(B) shall take such actions as are necessary to 
                prevent unauthorized access to such information by a 
                person other than the person making such communication 
                and the recipient of such communication.
            ``(2) Exceptions.--A person making a communication 
        described in subsection (a) may disclose such information if 
        the disclosure is--
                    ``(A) necessary to make the communication or 
                conduct a legitimate business activity related to 
                making the communication; or
                    ``(B) made pursuant to a court order authorizing 
                such disclosure.
    ``(e) Definitions.--For purposes of this subsection, the following 
definitions shall apply:
            ``(1) By means of the world wide web.--The term `by means 
        of the World Wide Web' means by placement of material in a 
        computer server-based file archive so that it is publicly 
        accessible, over the Internet, using hypertext transfer 
        protocol or any successor protocol.
            ``(2) Commercial purposes; engaged in the business.--
                    ``(A) Commercial purposes.--A person shall be 
                considered to make a communication for commercial 
                purposes only if such person is engaged in the business 
                of making such communications.
                    ``(B) Engaged in the business.--The term `engaged 
                in the business' means that the person who makes a 
                communication, or offers to make a communication, by 
                means of the World Wide Web, that includes any material 
                that is harmful to minors, devotes time, attention, or 
                labor to such activities, as a regular course of such 
                person's trade or business, with the objective of 
                earning a profit as a result of such activities 
                (although it is not necessary that the person make a 
                profit or that the making or offering to make such 
                communications be the person's sole or principal 
                business or source of income). A person may be 
                considered to be engaged in the business of making, by 
                means of the World Wide Web, communications for 
                commercial purposes that include material that is 
                harmful to minors, only if the person knowingly causes 
                the material that is harmful to minors to be posted on 
                the World Wide Web or knowingly solicits such material 
                to be posted on the World Wide Web.
            ``(3) Internet.--The term `Internet' means the combination 
        of computer facilities and electromagnetic transmission media, 
        and related equipment and software, comprising the 
        interconnected worldwide network of computer networks that 
        employ the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol or 
any successor protocol to transmit information.
            ``(4) Internet access service.--The term `Internet access 
        service' means a service that enables users to access content, 
        information, electronic mail, or other services offered over 
        the Internet, and may also include access to proprietary 
        content, information, and other services as part of a package 
        of services offered to consumers. Such term does not include 
        telecommunications services.
            ``(5) Internet information location tool.--The term 
        `Internet information location tool' means a service that 
        refers or links users to an online location on the World Wide 
        Web. Such term includes directories, indices, references, 
        pointers, and hypertext links.
            ``(6) Material that is harmful to minors.--The term 
        `material that is harmful to minors' means any communication, 
        picture, image, graphic image file, article, recording, 
        writing, or other matter of any kind that--
                    ``(A) the average person, applying contemporary 
                community standards, would find, taking the material as 
                a whole and with respect to minors, that such material 
                is designed to appeal to or panders to the prurient 
                interest;
                    ``(B) depicts, describes, or represents, in a 
                manner patently offensive with respect to minors, an 
                actual or simulated sexual act or sexual contact, an 
                actual or simulated normal or perverted sexual act, or 
                a lewd exhibition of the genitals or female breast; and
                    ``(C) taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, 
                artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.
            ``(7) Minor.--The term `minor' means any person under 17 
        years of age.''.

SEC. 4. NOTICE REQUIREMENT.

    (a) Notice.--Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 
U.S.C. 230) is amended--
            (1) by redesignating subsections (d) and (e) as subsections 
        (e) and (f), respectively;
            (2) by inserting after subsection (c) the following new 
        subsection:
    ``(d) Obligations of Interactive Computer Service.--A provider of 
interactive computer service shall, at the time of entering an 
agreement with a customer for the provision of interactive computer 
service and in a manner deemed appropriate by the provider, notify such 
customer that parental control protections (such as computer hardware, 
software, or filtering services) are commercially available that may 
assist the customer in limiting access to material that is harmful to 
minors. Such notice shall identify, or provide the customer with access 
to information identifying, current providers of such protections.''.
    (b) Conforming Amendment.--Section 223(h)(2) of the Communications 
Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 223(h)(2)) is amended by striking ``230(e)(2)'' 
and inserting ``230(f)(2)''.

SEC. 5. STUDY BY COMMISSION ON ONLINE CHILD PROTECTION.

    (a) Establishment.--There is hereby established a temporary 
Commission to be known as the Commission on Online Child Protection (in 
this section referred to as the ``Commission'') for the purpose of 
conducting a study under this section regarding methods to help reduce 
access by minors to material that is harmful to minors on the Internet.
    (b) Membership.--The Commission shall be composed of 17 members, as 
follows:
            (1) Industry members.--The Commission shall include--
                    (A) 2 members who are engaged in the business of 
                providing Internet filtering or blocking services or 
                software;
                    (B) 2 members who are engaged in the business of 
                providing Internet access services;
                    (C) 2 members who are engaged in the business of 
                providing labeling or ratings services;
                    (D) 2 members who are engaged in the business of 
                providing Internet portal or search services;
                    (E) 2 members who are engaged in the business of 
                providing domain name registration services; and
                    (F) 4 members who are engaged in the business of 
                making content available over the Internet.
        Of the members of the Commission by reason of each subparagraph 
        of this paragraph, an equal number shall be appointed by the 
        Speaker of the House of Representatives and by the Majority 
        Leader of the Senate.
            (2) Ex officio members.--The Commission shall include the 
        following officials:
                    (A) The Assistant Secretary (or the Assistant 
                Secretary's designee).
                    (B) The Attorney General (or the Attorney General's 
                designee).
                    (C) The Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission 
                (or the Chairman's designee).
    (c) Study.--
            (1) In general.--The duty of the Commission shall be to 
        conduct a study (and submit a report under subsection (d) on 
        the study) to identify technological or other methods, if any, 
        to help reduce access by minors to material that is harmful to 
        minors on the Internet that--
                    (A) the Commission determines meet the requirements 
                for use as affirmative defenses for purposes of section 
                231(c) of the Communications Act of 1934 (as added by 
                this Act); or
                    (B) may be used in any other manner to help reduce 
                such access.
        Any methods so identified shall be used as the basis for making 
        legislative recommendations to the Congress under subsection 
        (d)(3).
            (2) Specific methods.--In carrying out the study, the 
        Commission shall identify and analyze various technological 
        tools and methods for protecting minors from material that is 
        harmful to minors, which shall include--
                    (A) a common resource for parents to use to help 
                protect minors (such as a ``one-click-away'' resource);
                    (B) filtering or blocking software or services;
                    (C) labeling or rating systems;
                    (D) age verification systems;
                    (E) the establishment of a domain name for posting 
                of any material that is harmful to minors; and
                    (F) any other existing or proposed technologies or 
                methods for reducing access by minors to such material.
            (3) Analysis.--In analyzing technologies and other methods 
        identified pursuant to paragraph (2), the Commission shall 
        examine--
                    (A) the cost of such technologies and methods;
                    (B) the effects of such technologies and methods on 
                law enforcement entities;
                    (C) the effects of such technologies and methods on 
                privacy;
                    (D) the extent to which material that is harmful to 
                minors is globally distributed and the effect of such 
                technologies and methods on such distribution; and
                    (E) the accessibility of such technologies and 
                methods to parents.
    (d) Report.--Not later than 1 year after the enactment of this Act, 
the Commission shall submit a report to the Congress containing the 
results of the study under this section, which shall include--
            (1) a description of the technologies and methods 
        identified by the study and the results of the analysis of each 
        such technology and method;
            (2) the conclusions and recommendations of the Commission 
        regarding each such technology or method;
            (3) recommendations for legislative or administrative 
        actions to implement the conclusions of the committee; and
            (4) a description of the technologies or methods identified 
        by the study that may be used as affirmative defenses for 
        purposes of section 231(c) of the Communications Act of 1934 
        (as added by this Act).
    (e) Staff and Resources.--The Assistant Secretary for Communication 
and Information of the Department of Commerce shall provide to the 
Commission such staff and resources as the Assistant Secretary 
determines necessary for the Commission to perform its duty efficiently 
and in accordance with this section.
    (f) Termination.--The Commission shall terminate 30 days after the 
submission of the report under subsection (d).
    (g) Inapplicability of Federal Advisory Committee Act.--The Federal 
Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.) shall not apply to the 
Commission.




                                                 Union Calendar No. 441

105th CONGRESS

  2d Session

                               H. R. 3783

                          [Report No. 105-775]

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

   To amend section 223 of the Communications Act of 1934 to require 
persons who are engaged in the business of selling or transferring, by 
  means of the World Wide Web, material that is harmful to minors to 
  restrict access to such material by minors, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

                            October 5, 1998

  Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole 
       House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed