Assigned to TTMC FOR COMMITTEE
ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Sixth Legislature, Second Regular Session
FACT SHEET FOR S.B. 1298
internet; material harmful to minors.
Purpose
Establishes, for commercial entities that distribute a substantial portion of material harmful
to minors on the internet, age verification requirements, processes and liabilities.
Background
It is unlawful for a person, with knowledge of the character of the item involved, to:
1) recklessly furnish, present, provide, make available, give, lend, show, advertise or distribute to
a minor any item that is harmful to minors, excluding the transmission or sending of items over
the internet; or 2) intentionally or knowingly transmit or send to a minor by means of electronic
mail, personal messaging or any other direct internet communication an item that is harmful to
minors when the person knows or believes at the time of the transmission that a minor will receive
the item, excluding posting material on an internet web site, bulletin board or newsgroup or
sending material via mailing list or listserv that is not administered by the sender. A violation of
either offense is a class 4 felony and a failure to report a violation is a class 6 felony (A.R.S.
ยงยง 13-3506 and 13-3506.01)
There is no anticipated fiscal impact to the state General Fund associated with this
legislation.
Provisions
1. Requires a commercial entity that intentionally or knowingly publishes or distributes material
harmful to minors on the internet from a website that contains a substantial portion of such
material to verify that any person attempting to access the material is at least 18 years old.
2. Determines that a substantial portion is more than 33.33 percent of the total material on a
website.
3. Allows a commercial entity to verify a person's age either:
a) by comparing the internet protocol (IP) address with IP address blacklists; or
b) through any other commercially reasonable method of age and identity verification.
4. Grants an internet user with a minor child the right to submit a request to the user's internet
service provider to have one or more of the user's IP addresses added to, or removed from, a
blacklist.
5. Precludes an internet service provider from any obligation to confirm that a requesting internet
user has a minor child. FACT SHEET
S.B. 1298
Page 2
6. Subjects a commercial entity that violates the age verification requirement to civil liability for
damages resulting from a minor's access to material harmful to minors, including reasonable
attorney fees and costs.
7. Specifies that the outlined requirements do not impose an obligation or a liability on a provider
or user of an interactive computer service on the internet.
8. Defines material harmful to minors as any description or representation of nudity, sexual
conduct, sexual excitement or sadomasochistic abuse that:
a) appeals to the prurient, shameful or morbid interest of minors;
b) is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect
to what is suitable material for minors; and
c) is, when taken as a whole, lacking in serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value
for minors.
9. Defines interactive computer service as any information service, system or access software
provider that provides or enables computer access by multiple users to a computer server,
including a service or system that provides access to the internet and systems operated or
services offered by libraries or educational institutions.
10. Defines terms.
11. Makes conforming changes.
12. Becomes effective on the general effective date.
Prepared by Senate Research
February 7, 2024
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