By: Shaheen, Schatzline, Collier H.B. No. 1181
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to restricting access to sexual material harmful to minors
on an Internet website; providing a civil penalty.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Title 6, Civil Practice and Remedies Code, is
amended by adding Chapter 129B to read as follows:
CHAPTER 129B. LIABILITY FOR ALLOWING MINORS TO ACCESS PORNOGRAPHIC
MATERIAL
Sec. 129B.001. DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:
(1) "Commercial entity" includes a corporation,
limited liability company, partnership, limited partnership, sole
proprietorship, or other legally recognized business entity.
(2) "Distribute" means to issue, sell, give, provide,
deliver, transfer, transmute, circulate, or disseminate by any
means.
(3) "Minor" means an individual younger than 18 years
of age.
(4) "News-gathering organization" includes:
(A) an employee of a newspaper, news publication,
or news source, printed or on an online or mobile platform, of
current news and public interest, who is acting within the course
and scope of that employment and can provide documentation of that
employment with the newspaper, news publication, or news source;
and
(B) an employee of a radio broadcast station,
television broadcast station, cable television operator, or wire
service who is acting within the course and scope of that employment
and can provide documentation of that employment.
(5) "Publish" means to communicate or make information
available to another person or entity on a publicly available
Internet website.
(6) "Sexual material harmful to minors" includes any
material that:
(A) the average person, applying contemporary
community standards, would find, taking the material as a whole and
with respect to minors, is designed to appeal to or pander to the
prurient interest;
(B) in a manner patently offensive with respect
to minors, exploits, is devoted to, or principally consists of
descriptions of actual, simulated, or animated display or depiction
of:
(i) a person's pubic hair, anus, or genitals
or the nipple of the female breast;
(ii) touching, caressing, or fondling of
nipples, breasts, buttocks, anuses, or genitals; or
(iii) sexual intercourse, masturbation,
sodomy, bestiality, oral copulation, flagellation, excretory
functions, exhibitions, or any other sexual act; and
(C) taken as a whole, lacks serious literary,
artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.
(7) "Transactional data" means a sequence of
information that documents an exchange, agreement, or transfer
between an individual, commercial entity, or third party used for
the purpose of satisfying a request or event. The term includes
records from mortgage, education, and employment entities.
Sec. 129B.002. PUBLICATION OF MATERIAL HARMFUL TO MINORS.
(a) A commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally publishes
or distributes material on an Internet website, including a social
media platform, more than one-third of which is sexual material
harmful to minors, shall use reasonable age verification methods as
described by Section 129B.003 to verify that an individual
attempting to access the material is 18 years of age or older.
(b) A commercial entity that performs the age verification
required by Subsection (a) or a third party that performs the age
verification required by Subsection (a) may not retain any
identifying information of the individual.
Sec. 129B.003. REASONABLE AGE VERIFICATION METHODS. (a)
In this section, "digital identification" means information stored
on a digital network that may be accessed by a commercial entity and
that serves as proof of the identity of an individual.
(b) A commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally
publishes or distributes material on an Internet website or a third
party that performs age verification under this chapter shall
require an individual to:
(1) provide digital identification; or
(2) comply with a commercial age verification system
that verifies age using:
(A) government-issued identification; or
(B) a commercially reasonable method that relies
on public or private transactional data to verify the age of an
individual.
Sec. 129B.004. APPLICABILITY OF CHAPTER. (a) This chapter
does not apply to a bona fide news or public interest broadcast,
website video, report, or event and may not be construed to affect
the rights of a news-gathering organization.
(b) An Internet service provider, or its affiliates or
subsidiaries, a search engine, or a cloud service provider may not
be held to have violated this chapter solely for providing access or
connection to or from a website or other information or content on
the Internet or on a facility, system, or network not under that
provider's control, including transmission, downloading,
intermediate storage, access software, or other services to the
extent the provider or search engine is not responsible for the
creation of the content that constitutes sexual material harmful to
minors.
Sec. 129B.005. CIVIL PENALTY; INJUNCTION. (a) If the
attorney general believes that an entity is knowingly violating or
has knowingly violated this chapter and the action is in the public
interest, the attorney general may bring an action in a Travis
County district court or the district court in the county in which
the principal place of business of the entity is located in this
state to enjoin the violation, recover a civil penalty described by
Subsection (b), and obtain other relief the court considers
appropriate.
(b) A civil penalty imposed under this section may be in an
amount equal to not more than the total, if applicable, of:
(1) $10,000 per day that the entity operates an
Internet website in violation of the age verification requirements
of this chapter;
(2) $10,000 per instance when the entity retains
identifying information in violation of Section 129B.002(b); and
(3) if, because of the entity's violation of the age
verification requirements of this chapter, one or more minors
accesses sexual material harmful to minors, an additional amount of
not more than $250,000.
(c) The amount of a civil penalty under this section shall
be based on:
(1) the seriousness of the violation, including the
nature, circumstances, extent, and gravity of the violation;
(2) the history of previous violations;
(3) the amount necessary to deter a future violation;
(4) the economic effect of a penalty on the entity on
whom the penalty will be imposed;
(5) the entity's knowledge that the act constituted a
violation of this chapter; and
(6) any other matter that justice may require.
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2023.