Minnesota Session Laws - 1988, Regular Session

  

                         Laws of Minnesota 1988 

                        CHAPTER 452-H.F.No. 1710 
           An act relating to crime; prohibiting the display of 
          sexually explicit material deemed harmful to minors in 
          places of public accommodation open to minors; 
          providing a penalty; amending Minnesota Statutes 1986, 
          sections 617.293; and 617.296, subdivision 1, and by 
          adding a subdivision.  
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
    Section 1.  Minnesota Statutes 1986, section 617.293, is 
amended to read: 
    617.293 [HARMFUL MATERIALS; DISSEMINATION AND DISPLAY TO 
MINORS PROHIBITED.] 
    Subdivision 1.  [DISSEMINATION.] It is unlawful for any 
person knowingly to sell or loan for monetary consideration to a 
minor: 
    (a) Any picture, photograph, drawing, sculpture, motion 
picture film, or similar visual representation or image of a 
person or portion of the human body which depicts nudity, sexual 
conduct, or sadomasochistic abuse and which is harmful to 
minors, or 
    (b) Any book, pamphlet, magazine, printed matter however 
reproduced, or sound recording which contains any matter 
enumerated in clause (a), or which contains explicit and 
detailed verbal descriptions or narrative accounts of sexual 
excitement, sexual conduct, or sadomasochistic abuse which, 
taken as a whole, is harmful to minors.  
     Subd. 2.  [DISPLAY.] (a) It is unlawful for any person 
commercially and knowingly to exhibit or display any material 
which is harmful to minors in its content in any place of public 
accommodation where minors are or may be present and where 
minors are able to view the material unless each item is kept in 
a sealed wrapper at all times. 
     (b) It is unlawful for any person commercially and 
knowingly to exhibit or display any material the cover or 
packaging of which, standing alone, is harmful to minors in any 
place of public accommodation where minors are or may be present 
or allowed to be present and where minors are able to view the 
material unless each item is blocked from view by an opaque 
cover.  The opaque cover requirement is satisfied if those 
portions of the cover or packaging containing the material 
harmful to minors are blocked from view by an opaque cover. 
     (c) The provisions of this subdivision do not apply to the 
exhibition or display of materials harmful to minors under 
circumstances where minors are not present or are not able to 
view the material or the material's cover or packaging.  A 
person may comply with the requirements of this paragraph by (1) 
physically segregating the material in a manner that physically 
prohibits access to and view of the material by minors, (2) 
prominently posting at the entrance to the restricted area:  
"Adults only--you must be 18 to enter," and (3) enforcing the 
restriction. 
    Sec. 2.  Minnesota Statutes 1986, section 617.296, 
subdivision 1, is amended to read:  
    Subdivision 1.  Except as otherwise provided in subdivision 
1a, a violation of any provision of sections 617.291 to 
617.297 shall constitute is a gross misdemeanor.  
    Sec. 3.  Minnesota Statutes 1986, section 617.296, is 
amended by adding a subdivision to read: 
    Subd. 1a.  [PENALTY FOR DISPLAY OF HARMFUL MATERIALS.] A 
violation of section 617.293, subdivision 2, is a misdemeanor. 
    Sec. 4.  [EFFECTIVE DATE.] 
    Sections 1 to 3 are effective August 1, 1988, and apply to 
crimes committed on or after that date. 
    Approved April 6, 1988