HF 3662

as introduced - 81st Legislature (1999 - 2000) Posted on 12/15/2009 12:00am

  1.1                          A bill for an act 
  1.2             relating to commerce; requiring labeling of certain 
  1.3             materials; providing remedies; proposing coding for 
  1.4             new law as Minnesota Statutes, chapter 325L. 
  1.5   BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
  1.6      Section 1.  [325L.01] [SHORT TITLE.] 
  1.7      This chapter may be cited as the Internet Parent 
  1.8   Information Act. 
  1.9      Sec. 2.  [325L.02] [PURPOSE; FINDINGS.] 
  1.10     The purpose of this chapter is to permit informed choice 
  1.11  for consumers regarding whether they or their children will view 
  1.12  sexually explicit images.  The legislature finds that 
  1.13  traditional publication and broadcast methods afforded consumers 
  1.14  reasonable methods of determining whether a publication or 
  1.15  broadcast would contain sexually explicit imagery before viewing 
  1.16  the most explicit portions of that material or allowing it to be 
  1.17  viewed by their children.  These methods have included 
  1.18  television and movie listings, book jackets, magazine covers, 
  1.19  and similar mechanisms.  Technological change has eliminated 
  1.20  some of these methods of notice, and in certain cases the 
  1.21  consumer has no reliable method of ascertaining the nature of a 
  1.22  communication until its full effect has already been felt. 
  1.23     The legislature finds that consumers are particularly in 
  1.24  need of notice regarding sexually explicit images, because the 
  1.25  nature of an image about to be delivered often cannot be known 
  2.1   by the consumer until the entire image has already been 
  2.2   delivered and viewed.  In order to facilitate use of new and 
  2.3   emerging media by consumers who wish to make reasonably informed 
  2.4   choices about the material the consumer and the consumer's 
  2.5   family view, in order to preserve a consumer's right to control 
  2.6   the material that enters the consumer's home, and in order to 
  2.7   protect minors from unwittingly viewing sexually explicit 
  2.8   images, the legislature finds that it is necessary to provide 
  2.9   for a degree of advance notice for consumers regarding the 
  2.10  content of material made available electronically. 
  2.11     Sec. 3.  [325L.03] [DEFINITIONS.] 
  2.12     Subdivision 1.  [SCOPE.] For the purposes of this section, 
  2.13  the following terms have the definitions given them. 
  2.14     Subd. 2.  [INTERNET.] "Internet" means collectively the 
  2.15  myriad of computer and telecommunications facilities, including 
  2.16  equipment and operating software, which comprise the 
  2.17  interconnected worldwide network of networks that employ the 
  2.18  transmission control protocol/Internet protocol, or any 
  2.19  predecessor or successor protocols to this protocol, to 
  2.20  communicate information of all kinds by wire or radio. 
  2.21     Subd. 3.  [CONTENT PROVIDER.] "Content provider" means any 
  2.22  person residing in the state of Minnesota who makes sexually 
  2.23  explicit images accessible over the Internet by any method, 
  2.24  except that the following are not content providers: 
  2.25     (1) a person who provides Internet access or service to 
  2.26  third parties primarily for the purpose of allowing those third 
  2.27  parties to transmit content of their own choosing; 
  2.28     (2) a telecommunications carrier engaged in the provision 
  2.29  of a telecommunications service; 
  2.30     (3) a person engaged in the business of providing an 
  2.31  Internet information search tool; or 
  2.32     (4) a person similarly engaged in the transmission, 
  2.33  storage, retrieval, hosting, formatting, or translation, or any 
  2.34  combination thereof, of a communication made by another person, 
  2.35  without selection or alteration of the content of the 
  2.36  communication. 
  3.1      Subd. 4.  [LABELING STATEMENT.] "Labeling statement" means 
  3.2   a statement that provides notice to an Internet user that the 
  3.3   user is about to view a sexually explicit image. 
  3.4      Subd. 5.  [SEXUALLY EXPLICIT IMAGE.] "Sexually explicit 
  3.5   image" means any image that is prohibited from being displayed 
  3.6   to minors by section 617.293. 
  3.7      Sec. 4.  [325L.04] [LABELING OF SEXUALLY EXPLICIT IMAGES.] 
  3.8      Subdivision 1.  [REQUIREMENT.] A content provider must 
  3.9   label, in accordance with this section, any sexually explicit 
  3.10  image the provider makes accessible on the Internet. 
  3.11     Subd. 2.  [FORMAT OF LABELING.] An image is labeled only if 
  3.12  all of the following conditions are met: 
  3.13     (1) before an Internet user views the image, a labeling 
  3.14  statement is displayed.  This statement may be displayed in any 
  3.15  format that displays the text of the statement to the user 
  3.16  without displaying any part of the image; 
  3.17     (2) the labeling statement clearly indicates that the user 
  3.18  is about to view a sexually explicit image and should proceed 
  3.19  only if the user wishes to view that image; 
  3.20     (3) after the labeling statement is displayed, the image is 
  3.21  not displayed unless the user takes affirmative steps 
  3.22  manifesting the user's decision to view the image.  These steps 
  3.23  may include selecting an option marked "Yes" or "Continue"; 
  3.24     (4) the labeling statement contains no text, such as text 
  3.25  further promoting or describing the image, other than text 
  3.26  directly related to meet the labeling requirement; 
  3.27     (5) when the labeling statement is displayed, the user is 
  3.28  given the option of declining to view the image, using a method 
  3.29  that is no more complicated or difficult to execute than the 
  3.30  method used to view the image; and 
  3.31     (6) if the consumer declines to view the image, no part of 
  3.32  the image is displayed. 
  3.33     Sec. 5.  [325L.05] [REMEDIES.] 
  3.34     The public and private remedies in section 8.31 apply to 
  3.35  violations of this chapter.  In addition, a consumer who 
  3.36  prevails or substantially prevails in an action brought under 
  4.1   this section is entitled to a minimum of $500 in damages, 
  4.2   regardless of the amount of actual damage proved, plus costs, 
  4.3   disbursements, and reasonable attorney fees.  This chapter does 
  4.4   not affect any rights or remedies available under other law.