HB 254: "An Act relating to liability for publishing or distributing pornography to minors on the Internet."
00 HOUSE BILL NO. 254 01 "An Act relating to liability for publishing or distributing pornography to minors on the 02 Internet." 03 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 04 * Section 1. AS 09.68 is amended by adding a new section to read: 05 Sec. 09.68.140. Civil liability for publishing or distributing pornography to 06 minors on the Internet. (a) A commercial entity that intentionally publishes or 07 distributes pornography on the Internet from an Internet website that contains a 08 substantial portion of pornography shall use a commercially reasonable age 09 verification method to verify that a person attempting to access the pornography is 18 10 years of age or older. A commercial entity that violates this subsection is liable to an 11 individual for damages resulting from a minor accessing the pornography. In this 12 subsection, "commercially reasonable age verification method" includes requiring the 13 person attempting to access the pornography to provide a digitized identification card, 14 requiring the person to comply with a commercial age verification system that verifies
01 age using government-issued identification, or another method that relies on public or 02 private transactional data. 03 (b) A commercial entity or third party may not retain identifying information 04 of an individual used to verify age under (a) of this section after access has been 05 granted to the pornography. A commercial entity that knowingly retains identifying 06 information of an individual after access has been granted to the individual is liable to 07 the individual for damages resulting from retaining the identifying information. 08 (c) This section does not apply to a news or public interest broadcast, Internet 09 website video, report, or event. This section may not be construed to affect the rights 10 of a 11 (1) printed, online, or mobile platform newspaper, news publication, or 12 news source of current news; 13 (2) radio broadcast station, television broadcast station, cable 14 television operator, or wire service; or 15 (3) an employee of an entity identified in (1) or (2) of this subsection. 16 (d) A commercial entity that is an Internet service provider, search engine, 17 cloud service provider, or affiliate or subsidiary of an Internet service provider is not 18 liable under this section if the entity 19 (1) is not responsible for the creation of the pornography; and 20 (2) solely provides access or connections to 21 (A) an Internet website; 22 (B) information or material on the Internet; or 23 (C) a system or network, not under the control of the entity, for 24 data transmission, intermediate storage, Internet access software, or another 25 service related to Internet access or connectivity. 26 (e) In this section, 27 (1) "commercial entity" includes a corporation, limited liability 28 company, partnership, limited partnership, sole proprietorship, or other entity 29 recognized by law; 30 (2) "distribute" means to issue, sell, give, provide, deliver, transfer, 31 transmit, circulate, or disseminate by any means;
01 (3) "Internet" means the international computer network of both 02 federal and nonfederal interoperable packet switched data networks; 03 (4) "minor" means a person under 18 years of age; 04 (5) "pornography" means material that 05 (A) the average person, applying contemporary community 06 standards, would find, taking the material as a whole and with respect to 07 minors, is designed to appeal to, or is designed to pander to, the prurient 08 interest; 09 (B) in a manner patently offensive with respect to minors, 10 exploits, is devoted to, or principally consists of a description or an actual, 11 simulated, or animated display or depiction of 12 (i) pubic hair, anuses, vulvas, genitals, or nipples of a 13 female breast; 14 (ii) touching, caressing, or fondling of nipples, breasts, 15 buttocks, anuses, or genitals; or 16 (iii) sexual intercourse, masturbation, sodomy, 17 bestiality, oral copulation, flagellation, excretory functions, exhibitions, 18 or any other sexual act; and 19 (C) when taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, 20 political, or scientific value for minors; 21 (6) "publish" means to communicate or make information available to 22 another person or entity on a publicly available Internet website; 23 (7) "substantial portion" means more than one-third of the total 24 material on an Internet website contains pornography; 25 (8) "transactional data" means a sequence of information that 26 documents an exchange, agreement, or transfer between an individual, commercial 27 entity, or third party used for the purpose of satisfying a request or event.