WASHINGTON, DC — The full, current text of the Cyber Safety for Kids Act of 2007, as introduced in the Senate, has been made available on the Library of Congress (LOC) website, www.thomas.loc.gov.Sponsored by Senators Max Baucus (D-MT) and Mark Pryor (D-AR), the latest version of the bill, S1086, was introduced in the Senate on April 11th by Baucus and Pryor, but at that time the full text of the bill had not been delivered to the LOC.
In the section of the bill titled “Prohibition On Commercial Websites Containing Material That Is Harmful To Minors,” the Act states:
“In General- No person who operates a website located on the Internet where such website is primarily operated for commercial purposes may knowingly, and with knowledge of the character of the material, place material that is harmful to minors on such website unless… (1) the home page, or any other page or screen that is initially viewable by a visitor to such website, does not include any material that is harmful to minors; (2) access to any such material is restricted to a specific set of individuals through an age verification requirement; and (3) the source code of such website contains the content description tag assigned to such website by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).”
If passed in its current form, S1086 would require the NTIA to develop a “common content description tag that… (1) will provide consumers with advance warning and information about the content of any website that contains material that is harmful to minors; (2) will allow consumers, based on such tag, to block or filter access to, and display of, any website that contains material that is harmful to minors; and (3) is technologically capable of being embedded into the source code a website.”
S1086 also contains a short list of “registration requirements” for websites subject to its labeling provision, stating that any operator of such a website must provide to ICANN, in addition to any other information ICANN requires, the name of “such operator,” the URL for the website, the IP address for the website and the content description tag required under the Act.
Under the Act, the NTIA would be required to make “memorandums of understanding, agreements, and contracts with ICANN, as may be necessary to carry out the requirement,” and amend any current agreements it has with ICANN as necessary to carry out its requirements under the Act.
S1086 calls for violations of the law to carry civil penalties “as the Secretary of Commerce shall prescribe.”
“Material that is harmful to minors” is defined under the Act in familiar fashion; “any communication, picture, image, graphic image file, article, recording, writing, or other matter of any kind that is obscene, or that a reasonable person would find… (A) taking the material as a whole and with respect to minors, is designed to appeal to, or is designed to pander to, the prurient interest; (B) depicts, describes, or represents, in a manner patently offensive with respect to minors (i) an actual or simulated sexual act or sexual contact; (ii) an actual or simulated normal or perverted sexual act; or (iii) a lewd exhibition of the genitals or post-pubescent female breast; and (C) taking the material as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.”
According to the LOC website, S1086 has been “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation,” but it has not yet been voted on by be the committee.
