SB130: Bill Text

SB130,1 Section 1. 100.76 of the statutes is created to read:

SB130,2,3 100.76 Publishing and distributing certain materials to minors. (1) Definitions. In this section:

SB130,2,7 (a) “Business entity” means a proprietorship, partnership, firm, business trust, joint venture, syndicate, corporation, limited liability company, or business association, including all wholly owned subsidiaries, majority-owned subsidiaries, parent companies, or affiliates of such an organization or entity.

SB130,2,9 (b) “Distribute” means to issue, sell, give, provide, deliver, transfer, transmute, circulate, or disseminate by any means.

SB130,2,10 (c) “Material harmful to minors” means material that is all of the following:

SB130,3,2 1. Material that the average person, applying contemporary community standards and taking the material as a whole and with respect to minors, would find to be designed to appeal or pander to prurient interests.

SB130,3,5 2. Material that exploits, is devoted to, or principally consists of descriptions of actual, simulated, or animated display or depiction of any of the following, in a manner patently offensive with respect to minors:

SB130,3,6 a. Pubic hair, anus, vulva, genitals, or nipple of the female breast.

SB130,3,8 b. Touching, caressing, or fondling of a nipple, breast, buttock, anus, or genitals.

SB130,3,10 c. Sexual intercourse, masturbation, sodomy, bestiality, oral copulation, flagellation, excretory functions, exhibitions, or any other sexual act.

SB130,3,12 3. Material that, when taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.

SB130,3,13 (d) “Minor” means an individual under 18 years of age.

SB130,3,14 (e) “News-gathering organization employee” means any of the following:

SB130,3,18 1. An employee of a print, online, or mobile platform newspaper, news publication, or news source that provides current news and public interest information, if the employee is acting in his or her capacity as an employee of the newspaper, news publication, or news source.

SB130,3,22 2. An employee of a radio broadcast station, television broadcast station, cable television operator, or wire service, if the employee is acting in his or her capacity as an employee of the radio broadcast station, television broadcast station, cable television operator, or wire service.

SB130,4,2 (f) “Obscene depiction of a purported child” means obscene material, as defined under s. 948.125 (1) (b), that contains a depiction of a purported child, as defined under s. 948.125 (1) (a).

SB130,4,3 (g) “Obscene material” has the meaning given in s. 944.21 (2) (c).

SB130,4,5 (h) “Publish” means to communicate or make information available to another person on a publicly available website.

SB130,4,8 (i) “Reasonable age verification method” means verification by a business entity using any of the following methods to determine that an individual seeking access to material harmful to minors is not a minor:

SB130,4,12 1. A commercial age verification system that verifies age using the individual’s government-issued identification card or by using any commercially reasonable method that uses public or private transactional data gathered about the individual.

SB130,4,13 2. A government-issued digitized identification card.

SB130,4,15 (j) “Substantial portion” means more than one-third of the total material on a website.

SB130,4,21 (2) Age verification required to publish or distribute material harmful to minors. (a) No business entity may knowingly and intentionally publish or distribute material harmful to minors on the Internet from a website that contains a substantial portion of such material, unless the business entity performs reasonable age verification methods to verify the age of individuals attempting to access the website.

SB130,5,2 (b) A person that performs a reasonable age verification method in compliance with par. (a) may not knowingly retain identifying information of the individual attempting to access the website after the individual’s access has been granted or denied.

SB130,5,8 (c) A business entity that knowingly and intentionally publishes or distributes material harmful to minors on the Internet from a website that contains a substantial portion of such material shall prevent persons from accessing the website from an internet protocol address or internet protocol address range that is linked to or known to be a virtual private network system or virtual private network provider.

SB130,5,12 (3) Prohibition on the publishing or distributing certain obscene material. No business entity may knowingly and intentionally publish or distribute an obscene depiction of a purported child or obscene material on the Internet.

SB130,5,16 (4) Civil liability. (a) A person alleging a violation of sub. (2) or (3) may bring an action seeking actual and punitive damages, court costs, and reasonable attorney fees notwithstanding s. 814.04 (1). A person bringing an action under this paragraph is not required to first exhaust any relevant administrative remedies.

SB130,5,18 (b) Sovereign immunity may not be raised as an affirmative defense in an action brought under par. (a).

SB130,5,21 (c) The presence or absence of a criminal conviction related to the same conduct underlying an alleged violation of sub. (2) or (3) has no bearing on the relief available to a person under par. (a).

SB130,5,24 (5) Exemptions. (a) Subsection (2) does not apply to any bona fide news or public interest broadcast, video, report, or event, and may not be construed to affect the rights of any news-gathering organization employee.

SB130,6,8 (b) No Internet service provider or its affiliates or subsidiaries, search engine, or cloud service provider shall be held to have violated sub. (2) on the basis of the entity having provided access or connection to or from a website, content on the Internet, or a facility, system, or network not under that entity’s control, or the entity’s provision of communicating, transmitting, downloading, intermediate storage of, providing access software for, or other services that communicate material harmful to minors, if that entity is not responsible for the creation of the content that constitutes material harmful to minors.

SB130,6,17 (c) No Internet service provider or its affiliates or subsidiaries, search engine, or cloud service provider shall be held to have violated sub. (3) on the basis of the entity having provided access or connection to or from a website, content on the Internet, or a facility, system, or network not under that entity’s control, or the entity’s provision of communicating, transmitting, downloading, intermediate storage of, providing access software for, or other services that communicate an obscene depiction of a purported child or obscene material, if that entity is not responsible for the creation of the content that constitutes an obscene depiction of a purported child or obscene material.

SB130,6,18 (end)