HF 3662

2nd Engrossment - 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 parents regarding whether they or their children will access 
  1.12  sexually explicit images or sounds.  The legislature finds that 
  1.13  traditional publication and broadcast methods afforded parents 
  1.14  reasonable methods of determining whether a publication or 
  1.15  broadcast contained sexually explicit imagery or sound before 
  1.16  accessing the explicit images or sounds or allowing it to be 
  1.17  accessed 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 parent 
  1.21  or children have no reliable method of ascertaining the nature 
  1.22  of a communication until its full and sometimes damaging effect 
  1.23  has already been felt. 
  1.24     The legislature finds that parents and their children are 
  1.25  in need of Internet access protection and notice regarding 
  2.1   sexually explicit images or sounds, because the nature of an 
  2.2   image or sound about to be delivered often cannot be known until 
  2.3   the entire image or sound has already been delivered and 
  2.4   accessed.  In order to facilitate use of new and emerging media 
  2.5   by consumers who wish to make informed choices about the images 
  2.6   and sounds they access and can be harmful to them, in order to 
  2.7   preserve a parent's right to protect their home from harmful 
  2.8   influence and control the images or sounds that enter the 
  2.9   parent's home, and in order to protect minors from unwittingly 
  2.10  accessing sexually explicit images or sounds, the legislature 
  2.11  finds that it is necessary to provide for a degree of advance 
  2.12  notice for parents regarding the content of material made 
  2.13  available electronically. 
  2.14     Sec. 3.  [325L.03] [DEFINITIONS.] 
  2.15     Subdivision 1.  [SCOPE.] For the purposes of this section, 
  2.16  the following terms have the definitions given them. 
  2.17     Subd. 2.  [INTERNET.] "Internet" means collectively the 
  2.18  myriad of computer and telecommunications facilities, including 
  2.19  equipment and operating software, which comprise the 
  2.20  interconnected worldwide network of networks that employ the 
  2.21  transmission control protocol/Internet protocol, or any 
  2.22  predecessor or successor protocols to this protocol, to 
  2.23  communicate information of all kinds by wire or radio. 
  2.24     Subd. 3.  [CONTENT PROVIDER.] "Content provider" means any 
  2.25  person residing in the state of Minnesota who makes sexually 
  2.26  explicit images or sounds accessible over the Internet by any 
  2.27  method, except that the following are not content providers: 
  2.28     (1) a person who provides Internet access or service to 
  2.29  third parties primarily for the purpose of allowing those third 
  2.30  parties to transmit content of their own choosing; 
  2.31     (2) a telecommunications carrier engaged in the provision 
  2.32  of a telecommunications service; 
  2.33     (3) a person engaged in the business of providing an 
  2.34  Internet information search tool; or 
  2.35     (4) a person similarly engaged in the transmission, 
  2.36  storage, retrieval, hosting, formatting, or translation, or any 
  3.1   combination thereof, of a communication made by another person, 
  3.2   without selection or alteration of the content of the 
  3.3   communication. 
  3.4      Subd. 4.  [LABELING STATEMENT.] "Labeling statement" means 
  3.5   a statement that provides notice to an Internet user that the 
  3.6   user is about to view a sexually explicit image or hear a 
  3.7   sexually explicit sound. 
  3.8      Subd. 5.  [SEXUALLY EXPLICIT IMAGE.] "Sexually explicit 
  3.9   image" means any image that is prohibited from being displayed 
  3.10  to minors by section 617.293. 
  3.11     Subd. 6. [SEXUALLY EXPLICIT SOUND.] "Sexually explicit 
  3.12  sound" means a sound that is prohibited from being played for 
  3.13  minors by section 617.293. 
  3.14     Sec. 4.  [325L.04] [LABELING OF SEXUALLY EXPLICIT IMAGES OR 
  3.15  SOUNDS.] 
  3.16     Subdivision 1.  [REQUIREMENT.] A content provider must 
  3.17  label, in accordance with this section, any sexually explicit 
  3.18  image or sound the provider makes accessible on the Internet. 
  3.19     Subd. 2.  [FORMAT OF LABELING.] An image or sound is 
  3.20  labeled only if all of the following conditions are met: 
  3.21     (1) before an Internet user views the image or hears the 
  3.22  sound, a labeling statement is displayed.  This statement may be 
  3.23  displayed in any format that displays the text of the statement 
  3.24  in a legible and easy-to-read format to the user without 
  3.25  displaying or playing any part of the image or sound; 
  3.26     (2) the labeling statement clearly indicates that the user 
  3.27  is about to access a sexually explicit image or sound and should 
  3.28  proceed only if the user wishes to access that image or sound; 
  3.29     (3) after the labeling statement is displayed, the image or 
  3.30  sound is not displayed or played unless the user takes at least 
  3.31  two affirmative steps manifesting the user's decision to access 
  3.32  the material.  These steps should include at least selecting an 
  3.33  option that is less than obvious to children marked "Yes" or 
  3.34  "Continue"; 
  3.35     (4) the labeling statement contains no text, that promotes 
  3.36  or describes the image or sound, other than text directly 
  4.1   related to meet the labeling requirement; 
  4.2      (5) when the labeling statement is displayed, the user is 
  4.3   given the option that is obvious to children of declining to 
  4.4   access the image or sound, using a method that is simpler or 
  4.5   easier to execute than the method used to access the image or 
  4.6   sound; and 
  4.7      (6) if the consumer declines to access the image or sound, 
  4.8   no part of the image or sound is displayed or played. 
  4.9      Sec. 5.  [325L.05] [REMEDIES.] 
  4.10     The public and private remedies in section 8.31 apply to 
  4.11  violations of this chapter.  In addition, a consumer who 
  4.12  prevails or substantially prevails in an action brought under 
  4.13  this section is entitled to a minimum of $500 in damages, 
  4.14  regardless of the amount of actual damage proved, plus costs, 
  4.15  disbursements, and reasonable attorney fees.  This chapter does 
  4.16  not affect any rights or remedies available under other law.