II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 737
To require certain interactive computer services to adopt and operate tech-
nology verification measures to ensure that users of the platform are
not minors, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY26, 2025
Mr. L
EE(for himself, Mr. CURTIS, and Mr. BANKS) introduced the following
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce,
Science, and Transportation
A BILL
To require certain interactive computer services to adopt
and operate technology verification measures to ensure
that users of the platform are not minors, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Shielding Children’s 4
Retinas from Egregious Exposure on the Net Act’’ or the 5
‘‘SCREEN Act’’. 6
SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS. 7
(a) F
INDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 8
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(1) Over the 3 decades preceding the date of 1
enactment of this Act, Congress has passed several 2
bills to protect minors from access to online porno-3
graphic content, including title V of the Tele-4
communications Act of 1996 (Public Law 104–104) 5
(commonly known as the ‘‘Communications Decency 6
Act’’), section 231 of the Communications Act of 7
1934 (47 U.S.C. 231) (commonly known as the 8
‘‘Child Online Protection Act’’), and the Children’s 9
Internet Protection Act (title XVII of division B of 10
Public Law 106–554). 11
(2) With the exception of the Children’s Inter-12
net Protection Act (title XVII of division B of Public 13
Law 106–554), the Supreme Court of the United 14
States has struck down the previous efforts of Con-15
gress to shield children from pornographic content, 16
finding that such legislation constituted a ‘‘compel-17
ling government interest’’ but that it was not the 18
least restrictive means to achieve such interest. In 19
Ashcroft v. ACLU, 542 U.S. 656 (2004), the Court 20
even suggested at the time that ‘‘blocking and fil-21
tering software’’ could conceivably be a ‘‘primary al-22
ternative’’ to the requirements passed by Congress. 23
(3) In the nearly 2 decades since the Supreme 24
Court of the United States suggested the use of 25
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‘‘blocking and filtering software’’, such technology 1
has proven to be ineffective in protecting minors 2
from accessing online pornographic content. The 3
Kaiser Family Foundation has found that filters do 4
not work on 1 in 10 pornography sites accessed in-5
tentionally and 1 in 3 pornography sites that are 6
accessed unintentionally. Further, it has been proven 7
that children are able to bypass ‘‘blocking and fil-8
tering’’ software by employing strategic searches or 9
measures to bypass the software completely. 10
(4) Additionally, Pew Research has revealed 11
studies showing that only 39 percent of parents use 12
blocking or filtering software for their minor’s online 13
activities, meaning that 61 percent of children only 14
have restrictions on their internet access when they 15
are at school or at a library. 16
(5) 17 States have now recognized pornography 17
as a public health hazard that leads to a broad 18
range of individual harms, societal harms, and pub-19
lic health impacts. 20
(6) It is estimated that 80 percent of minors 21
between the ages of 12 to 17 have been exposed to 22
pornography, with 54 percent of teenagers seeking it 23
out. The internet is the most common source for mi-24
nors to access pornography with pornographic 25
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websites receiving more web traffic in the United 1
States than Twitter, Netflix, Pinterest, and 2
LinkedIn combined. 3
(7) Exposure to online pornography has created 4
unique psychological effects for minors, including 5
anxiety, addiction, low self-esteem, body image dis-6
orders, an increase in problematic sexual activity at 7
younger ages, and an increased desire among minors 8
to engage in risky sexual behavior. 9
(8) The Supreme Court of the United States 10
has recognized on multiple occasions that Congress 11
has a ‘‘compelling government interest’’ to protect 12
the physical and psychological well-being of minors, 13
which includes shielding them from ‘‘indecent’’ con-14
tent that may not necessarily be considered ‘‘ob-15
scene’’ by adult standards. 16
(9) Because ‘‘blocking and filtering software’’ 17
has not produced the results envisioned nearly 2 dec-18
ades ago, it is necessary for Congress to pursue al-19
ternative policies to enable the protection of the 20
physical and psychological well-being of minors. 21
(10) The evolution of our technology has now 22
enabled the use of age verification technology that is 23
cost efficient, not unduly burdensome, and can be 24
operated narrowly in a manner that ensures only 25
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adults have access to a website’s online pornographic 1
content. 2
(b) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-3
gress that— 4
(1) shielding minors from access to online por-5
nographic content is a compelling government inter-6
est that protects the physical and psychological well- 7
being of minors; and 8
(2) requiring interactive computer services that 9
are in the business of creating, hosting, or making 10
available pornographic content to enact technological 11
measures that shield minors from accessing porno-12
graphic content on their platforms is the least re-13
strictive means for Congress to achieve its compel-14
ling government interest. 15
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 16
In this Act: 17
(1) C
HILD PORNOGRAPHY ; MINOR.—The terms 18
‘‘child pornography’’ and ‘‘minor’’ have the mean-19
ings given those terms in section 2256 of title 18, 20
United States Code. 21
(2) C
OMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 22
means the Federal Trade Commission. 23
(3) C
OVERED PLATFORM .—The term ‘‘covered 24
platform’’— 25
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(A) means an entity— 1
(i) that is an interactive computer 2
service; 3
(ii) that— 4
(I) is engaged in interstate or 5
foreign commerce; or 6
(II) purposefully avails itself of 7
the United States market or a portion 8
thereof; and 9
(iii) for which it is in the regular 10
course of the trade or business of the enti-11
ty to create, host, or make available con-12
tent that meets the definition of harmful to 13
minors under paragraph (4) and that is 14
provided by the entity, a user, or other in-15
formation content provider, with the objec-16
tive of earning a profit; and 17
(B) includes an entity described in sub-18
paragraph (A) regardless of whether— 19
(i) the entity earns a profit on the ac-20
tivities described in subparagraph (A)(iii); 21
or 22
(ii) creating, hosting, or making avail-23
able content that meets the definition of 24
harmful to minors under paragraph (4) is 25
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the sole source of income or principal busi-1
ness of the entity. 2
(4) H
ARMFUL TO MINORS.—The term ‘‘harmful 3
to minors’’, with respect to a picture, image, graphic 4
image file, film, videotape, or other visual depiction, 5
means that the picture, image, graphic image file, 6
film, videotape, or other depiction— 7
(A)(i) taken as a whole and with respect to 8
minors, appeals to the prurient interest in nu-9
dity, sex, or excretion; 10
(ii) depicts, describes, or represents, in a 11
patently offensive way with respect to what is 12
suitable for minors, an actual or simulated sex-13
ual act or sexual contact, actual or simulated 14
normal or perverted sexual acts, or lewd exhi-15
bition of the genitals; and 16
(iii) taken as a whole, lacks serious, lit-17
erary, artistic, political, or scientific value as to 18
minors; 19
(B) is obscene; or 20
(C) is child pornography. 21
(5) I
NFORMATION CONTENT PROVIDER ; INTER-22
ACTIVE COMPUTER SERVICE .—The terms ‘‘informa-23
tion content provider’’ and ‘‘interactive computer 24
service’’ have the meanings given those terms in sec-25
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tion 230(f) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 1
U.S.C. 230(f)). 2
(6) S
EXUAL ACT; SEXUAL CONTACT .—The 3
terms ‘‘sexual act’’ and ‘‘sexual contact’’ have the 4
meanings given those terms in section 2246 of title 5
18, United States Code. 6
(7) T
ECHNOLOGY VERIFICATION MEASURE .— 7
The term ‘‘technology verification measure’’ means 8
technology that— 9
(A) employs a system or process to deter-10
mine whether it is more likely than not that a 11
user of a covered platform is a minor; and 12
(B) prevents access by minors to any con-13
tent on a covered platform. 14
(8) T
ECHNOLOGY VERIFICATION MEASURE 15
DATA.—The term ‘‘technology verification measure 16
data’’ means information that— 17
(A) identifies, is linked to, or is reasonably 18
linkable to an individual or a device that identi-19
fies, is linked to, or is reasonably linkable to an 20
individual; 21
(B) is collected or processed for the pur-22
pose of fulfilling a request by an individual to 23
access any content on a covered platform; and 24
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(C) is collected and processed solely for the 1
purpose of utilizing a technology verification 2
measure and meeting the obligations imposed 3
under this Act. 4
SEC. 4. TECHNOLOGY VERIFICATION MEASURES. 5
(a) C
OVEREDPLATFORMREQUIREMENTS.—Begin-6
ning on the date that is 1 year after the date of enactment 7
of this Act, a covered platform shall adopt and utilize tech-8
nology verification measures on the platform to ensure 9
that— 10
(1) users of the covered platform are not mi-11
nors; and 12
(2) minors are prevented from accessing any 13
content on the covered platform that is harmful to 14
minors. 15
(b) R
EQUIREMENTS FOR AGEVERIFICATIONMEAS-16
URES.—In order to comply with the requirement of sub-17
section (a), the technology verification measures adopted 18
and utilized by a covered platform shall do the following: 19
(1) Use a technology verification measure in 20
order to verify a user’s age. 21
(2) Provide that requiring a user to confirm 22
that the user is not a minor shall not be sufficient 23
to satisfy the requirement of subsection (a). 24
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(3) Make publicly available the verification 1
process that the covered platform is employing to 2
comply with the requirements under this Act. 3
(4) Subject the Internet Protocol (IP) address-4
es, including known virtual proxy network IP ad-5
dresses, of all users of a covered platform to the 6
technology verification measure described in para-7
graph (1) unless the covered platform determines 8
based on available technology that a user is not lo-9
cated within the United States. 10
(c) C
HOICE OFVERIFICATIONMEASURES.—A cov-11
ered platform may choose the specific technology 12
verification measures to employ for purposes of complying 13
with subsection (a), provided that the technology 14
verification measure employed by the covered platform 15
meets the requirements of subsection (b) and prohibits a 16
minor from accessing the platform or any information on 17
the platform that is obscene, child pornography, or harm-18
ful to minors. 19
(d) U
SE OFTHIRDPARTIES.—A covered platform 20
may contract with a third party to employ technology 21
verification measures for purposes of complying with sub-22
section (a), but the use of such a third party shall not 23
relieve the covered platform of its obligations under this 24
Act or from liability under this Act. 25
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(e) RULE OFCONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec-1
tion shall be construed to require a covered platform to 2
submit to the Commission any information that identifies, 3
is linked to, or is reasonably linkable to a user of the cov-4
ered platform or a device that identifies, is linked to, or 5
is reasonably linkable to a user of the covered platform. 6
(f) T
ECHNOLOGYVERIFICATIONMEASUREDATASE-7
CURITY.—A covered platform shall— 8
(1) establish, implement, and maintain reason-9
able data security to— 10
(A) protect the confidentiality, integrity, 11
and accessibility of technology verification 12
measure data collected by the covered platform 13
or a third party employed by the covered plat-14
form; and 15
(B) protect such technology verification 16
measure data against unauthorized access; and 17
(2) retain the technology verification measure 18
data for no longer than is reasonably necessary to 19
utilize a technology verification measure or what is 20
minimally necessary to demonstrate compliance with 21
the obligations under this Act. 22
SEC. 5. CONSULTATION REQUIREMENTS. 23
In enforcing the requirements under section 4, the 24
Commission shall consult with the following individuals, 25
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including with respect to the applicable standards and 1
metrics for making a determination on whether a user of 2
a covered platform is not a minor: 3
(1) Individuals with experience in computer 4
science and software engineering. 5
(2) Individuals with experience in— 6
(A) advocating for online child safety; or 7
(B) providing services to minors who have 8
been victimized by online child exploitation. 9
(3) Individuals with experience in consumer 10
protection and online privacy. 11
(4) Individuals who supply technology 12
verification measure products or have expertise in 13
technology verification measure solutions. 14
(5) Individuals with experience in data security 15
and cryptography. 16
SEC. 6. COMMISSION REQUIREMENTS. 17
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Commission shall— 18
(1) conduct regular audits of covered platforms 19
to ensure compliance with the requirements of sec-20
tion 4; 21
(2) make public the terms and processes for the 22
audits conducted under paragraph (1), including the 23
processes for any third party conducting an audit on 24
behalf of the Commission; 25
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(3) establish a process for each covered plat-1
form to submit only such documents or other mate-2
rials as are necessary for the Commission to ensure 3
full compliance with the requirements of section 4 4
when conducting audits under this section; and 5
(4) prescribe the appropriate documents, mate-6
rials, or other measures required to demonstrate full 7
compliance with the requirements of section 4. 8
(b) G
UIDANCE.— 9
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 10
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Commis-11
sion shall issue guidance to assist covered platforms 12
in complying with the requirements of section 4. 13
(2) L
IMITATIONS ON GUIDANCE .— 14
(A) I
N GENERAL.—No guidance issued by 15
the Commission with respect to this Act shall 16
confer any rights on any person, State, or local-17
ity, nor shall operate to bind the Commission or 18
any person to the approach recommended in 19
such guidance. 20
(B) S
PECIFICITY IN ENFORCEMENT .—In 21
any enforcement action brought pursuant to 22
this Act, the Commission shall allege a specific 23
violation of a provision of this Act. 24
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(C) ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS .—The Com-1
mission may not base an enforcement action on, 2
or execute a consent order based on, practices 3
that are alleged to be inconsistent with any 4
such guidelines, unless the practices allegedly 5
violate a provision of this Act. 6
SEC. 7. ENFORCEMENT. 7
(a) U
NFAIR ORDECEPTIVEACT ORPRACTICE.—A 8
violation of section 4 shall be treated as a violation of a 9
rule defining an unfair or deceptive act or practice under 10
section 18(a)(1)(B) of the Federal Trade Commission Act 11
(15 U.S.C. 57a(a)(1)(B)). 12
(b) P
OWERS OF THECOMMISSION.— 13
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Commission shall en-14
force section 4 in the same manner, by the same 15
means, and with the same jurisdiction, powers, and 16
duties as though all applicable terms and provisions 17
of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 18
et seq.) were incorporated into and made a part of 19
this title. 20
(2) P
RIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES .—Any person 21
who violates section 4 shall be subject to the pen-22
alties and entitled to the privileges and immunities 23
provided in the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 24
U.S.C. 41 et seq.). 25
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(3) AUTHORITY PRESERVED .—Nothing in this 1
Act shall be construed to limit the authority of the 2
Commission under any other provision of law. 3
SEC. 8. GAO REPORT. 4
Not later than 2 years after the date on which cov-5
ered platforms are required to comply with the require-6
ment of section 4(a), the Comptroller General of the 7
United States shall submit to Congress a report that in-8
cludes— 9
(1) an analysis of the effectiveness of the tech-10
nology verification measures required under such 11
section; 12
(2) an analysis of rates of compliance with such 13
section among covered platforms; 14
(3) an analysis of the data security measures 15
used by covered platforms in the age verification 16
process; 17
(4) an analysis of the behavioral, economic, psy-18
chological, and societal effects of implementing tech-19
nology verification measures; 20
(5) recommendations to the Commission on im-21
proving enforcement of section 4(a), if any; and 22
(6) recommendations to Congress on potential 23
legislative improvements to this Act, if any. 24
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SEC. 9. SEVERABILITY CLAUSE. 1
If any provision of this Act, or the application of such 2
a provision to any person or circumstance, is held to be 3
unconstitutional, the remaining provisions of this Act, and 4
the application of such provisions to any other person or 5
circumstance, shall not be affected thereby. 6
Æ
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