47 U.S.C. § 231 — Restriction of access by minors to mate-

Page 91 TITLE 47—TELECOMMUNICATIONS § 231 Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries EFFECTIVE DATE OF 2018 AMENDMENT Pub. L. 115–164, § 4(b), Apr. 11, 2018, 132 Stat. 1254, pro- vided that: ‘‘The amendments made by this section [amending this section] shall take effect on the date of the enactment of this Act [Apr. 11, 2018], and the amendment made by subsection (a) shall apply regard- less of whether the conduct alleged occurred, or is al- leged to have occurred, before, on, or after such date of enactment.’’ EFFECTIVE DATE OF 1998 AMENDMENT Amendment by Pub. L. 105–277 effective 30 days after Oct. 21, 1998, see section 1406 of Pub. L. 105–277, set out as a note under section 223 of this title. SAVINGS Pub. L. 115–164, § 7, Apr. 11, 2018, 132 Stat. 1255, pro- vided that: ‘‘Nothing in this Act [see Short Title of 2018 Amendment note set out under section 1 of Title 18, Crimes and Criminal Procedure] or the amendments made by this Act shall be construed to limit or preempt any civil action or criminal prosecution under Federal law or State law (including State statutory law and State common law) filed before or after the day before the date of enactment of this Act [Apr. 11, 2018] that was not limited or preempted by section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230), as such sec- tion was in effect on the day before the date of enact- ment of this Act.’’ SENSE OF CONGRESS Pub. L. 115–164, § 2, Apr. 11, 2018, 132 Stat. 1253, pro- vided that: ‘‘It is the sense of Congress that— ‘‘(1) section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230; commonly known as the ‘Communica- tions Decency Act of 1996’) was never intended to pro- vide legal protection to websites that unlawfully pro- mote and facilitate prostitution and websites that fa- cilitate traffickers in advertising the sale of unlawful sex acts with sex trafficking victims; ‘‘(2) websites that promote and facilitate prostitu- tion have been reckless in allowing the sale of sex trafficking victims and have done nothing to prevent the trafficking of children and victims of force, fraud, and coercion; and ‘‘(3) clarification of such section is warranted to en- sure that such section does not provide such protec- tion to such websites.’’ Executive Documents EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 13925 Ex. Ord. No. 13925, May 28, 2020, 85 F.R. 34079, which related to moderation of content posted on social media platforms, was revoked by Ex. Ord. No. 14029, § 1, May 14, 2021, 86 F.R. 27025. § 231. Restriction of access by minors to mate- rials commercially distributed by means of World Wide Web that are harmful to minors (a) Requirement to restrict access (1) Prohibited conduct Whoever knowingly and with knowledge of the character of the material, in interstate or foreign commerce by means of the World Wide Web, makes any communication for commer- cial purposes that is available to any minor and that includes any material that is harmful to minors shall be fined not more than $50,000, imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both. (2) Intentional violations In addition to the penalties under paragraph (1), whoever intentionally violates such para- graph shall be subject to a fine of not more than $50,000 for each violation. For purposes of this paragraph, each day of violation shall constitute a separate violation. (3) Civil penalty In addition to the penalties under para- graphs (1) and (2), whoever violates paragraph (1) shall be subject to a civil penalty of not more than $50,000 for each violation. For pur- poses of this paragraph, each day of violation shall constitute a separate violation. (b) Inapplicability of carriers and other service providers For purposes of subsection (a), a person shall not be considered to make any communication for commercial purposes to the extent that such person is— (1) a telecommunications carrier engaged in the provision of a telecommunications service; (2) a person engaged in the business of pro- viding an Internet access service; (3) a person engaged in the business of pro- viding an Internet information location tool; or (4) similarly engaged in the transmission, storage, retrieval, hosting, formatting, or translation (or any combination thereof) of a communication made by another person, with- out selection or alteration of the content of the communication, except that such person’s deletion of a particular communication or ma- terial made by another person in a manner consistent with subsection (c) or section 230 of this title shall not constitute such selection or alteration of the content of the communica- tion. (c) Affirmative defense (1) Defense It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under this section that the defendant, in good faith, has restricted access by minors to mate- rial that is harmful to minors— (A) by requiring use of a credit card, debit account, adult access code, or adult personal identification number; (B) by accepting a digital certificate that verifies age; or (C) by any other reasonable measures that are feasible under available technology. (2) Protection for use of defenses No cause of action may be brought in any court or administrative agency against any person on account of any activity that is not in violation of any law punishable by criminal or civil penalty, and that the person has taken in good faith to implement a defense author- ized under this subsection or otherwise to re- strict or prevent the transmission of, or access to, a communication specified in this section. (d) Privacy protection requirements (1) Disclosure of information limited A person making a communication described in subsection (a)— (A) shall not disclose any information col- lected for the purposes of restricting access to such communications to individuals 17 years of age or older without the prior writ- ten or electronic consent of— Page 92 TITLE 47—TELECOMMUNICATIONS § 231 1 So in original. Probably should be ‘‘section,’’. (i) the individual concerned, if the indi- vidual is an adult; or (ii) the individual’s parent or guardian, if the individual is under 17 years of age; and (B) shall take such actions as are nec- essary to prevent unauthorized access to such information by a person other than the person making such communication and the recipient of such communication. (2) Exceptions A person making a communication described in subsection (a) may disclose such informa- tion if the disclosure is— (A) necessary to make the communication or conduct a legitimate business activity re- lated to making the communication; or (B) made pursuant to a court order author- izing such disclosure. (e) Definitions For purposes of this subsection,1 the following definitions shall apply: (1) By means of the World Wide Web The term ‘‘by means of the World Wide Web’’ means by placement of material in a computer server-based file archive so that it is publicly accessible, over the Internet, using hypertext transfer protocol or any successor protocol. (2) Commercial purposes; engaged in the busi- ness (A) Commercial purposes A person shall be considered to make a communication for commercial purposes only if such person is engaged in the busi- ness of making such communications. (B) Engaged in the business The term ‘‘engaged in the business’’ means that the person who makes a communica- tion, or offers to make a communication, by means of the World Wide Web, that includes any material that is harmful to minors, de- votes time, attention, or labor to such ac- tivities, as a regular course of such person’s trade or business, with the objective of earn- ing a profit as a result of such activities (al- though it is not necessary that the person make a profit or that the making or offering to make such communications be the per- son’s sole or principal business or source of income). A person may be considered to be engaged in the business of making, by means of the World Wide Web, communications for commercial purposes that include material that is harmful to minors, only if the person knowingly causes the material that is harm- ful to minors to be posted on the World Wide Web or knowingly solicits such material to be posted on the World Wide Web. (3) Internet The term ‘‘Internet’’ means the combination of computer facilities and electromagnetic transmission media, and related equipment and software, comprising the interconnected worldwide network of computer networks that employ the Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol or any successor protocol to transmit information. (4) Internet access service The term ‘‘Internet access service’’ means a service that enables users to access content, information, electronic mail, or other services offered over the Internet, and may also in- clude access to proprietary content, informa- tion, and other services as part of a package of services offered to consumers. Such term does not include telecommunications services. (5) Internet information location tool The term ‘‘Internet information location tool’’ means a service that refers or links users to an online location on the World Wide Web. Such term includes directories, indices, references, pointers, and hypertext links. (6) Material that is harmful to minors The term ‘‘material that is harmful to mi- nors’’ means any communication, picture, image, graphic image file, article, recording, writing, or other matter of any kind that is obscene or that— (A) the average person, applying contem- porary community standards, would find, taking the material as a whole and with re- spect to minors, is designed to appeal to, or is designed to pander to, the prurient inter- est; (B) depicts, describes, or represents, in a manner patently offensive with respect to minors, an actual or simulated sexual act or sexual contact, an actual or simulated nor- mal or perverted sexual act, or a lewd exhi- bition of the genitals or post-pubescent fe- male breast; and (C) taken as a whole, lacks serious lit- erary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors. (7) Minor The term ‘‘minor’’ means any person under 17 years of age. (June 19, 1934, ch. 652, title II, § 231, as added Pub. L. 105–277, div. C, title XIV, § 1403, Oct. 21, 1998, 112 Stat. 2681–736.) Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries EFFECTIVE DATE Section effective 30 days after Oct. 21, 1998, see sec- tion 1406 of Pub. L. 105–277, set out as a note under sec- tion 223 of this title. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS Pub. L. 105–277, div. C, title XIV, § 1402, Oct. 21, 1998, 112 Stat. 2681–736, provided that: ‘‘The Congress finds that— ‘‘(1) while custody, care, and nurture of the child resides first with the parent, the widespread avail- ability of the Internet presents opportunities for mi- nors to access materials through the World Wide Web in a manner that can frustrate parental supervision or control; ‘‘(2) the protection of the physical and psycho- logical well-being of minors by shielding them from materials that are harmful to them is a compelling governmental interest; ‘‘(3) to date, while the industry has developed inno- vative ways to help parents and educators restrict Page 93 TITLE 47—TELECOMMUNICATIONS § 251 material that is harmful to minors through parental control protections and self-regulation, such efforts have not provided a national solution to the problem of minors accessing harmful material on the World Wide Web; ‘‘(4) a prohibition on the distribution of material harmful to minors, combined with legitimate de- fenses, is currently the most effective and least re- strictive means by which to satisfy the compelling government interest; and ‘‘(5) notwithstanding the existence of protections that limit the distribution over the World Wide Web of material that is harmful to minors, parents, edu- cators, and industry must continue efforts to find ways to protect children from being exposed to harm- ful material found on the Internet.’’ STUDY BY COMMISSION ON ONLINE CHILD PROTECTION Pub. L. 105–277, div. C, title XIV, § 1405, Oct. 21, 1998, 112 Stat. 2681–739, as amended by Pub. L. 106–113, div. B, § 1000(a)(9) [title V, § 5001(b)–(f), Nov. 29, 1999, 113 Stat. 1536, 1501A–591, 1501A–592; Pub. L. 106–229, title IV, § 401, June 30, 2000, 114 Stat. 476, established a Commission to study methods to reduce access by minors to harmful material on the Internet and provided that the Com- mission would terminate 30 days after submitting a re- port to Congress or Nov. 30, 2000, whichever occured earlier. PART II—DEVELOPMENT OF COMPETITIVE MARKETS § 251. Interconnection (a) General duty of telecommunications carriers Each telecommunications carrier has the duty— (1) to interconnect directly or indirectly with the facilities and equipment of other telecommunications carriers; and (2) not to install network features, func- tions, or capabilities that do not comply with the guidelines and standards established pur- suant to section 255 or 256 of this title. (b) Obligations of all local exchange carriers Each local exchange carrier has the following duties: (1) Resale The duty not to prohibit, and not to impose unreasonable or discriminatory conditions or limitations on, the resale of its telecommuni- cations services. (2) Number portability The duty to provide, to the extent tech- nically feasible, number portability in accord- ance with requirements prescribed by the Commission. (3) Dialing parity The duty to provide dialing parity to com- peting providers of telephone exchange service and telephone toll service, and the duty to permit all such providers to have nondiscrim- inatory access to telephone numbers, operator services, directory assistance, and directory listing, with no unreasonable dialing delays. (4) Access to rights-of-way The duty to afford access to the poles, ducts, conduits, and rights-of-way of such carrier to competing providers of telecommunications services on rates, terms, and conditions that are consistent with section 224 of this title. (5) Reciprocal compensation The duty to establish reciprocal compensa- tion arrangements for the transport and ter- mination of telecommunications. (c) Additional obligations of incumbent local ex- change carriers In addition to the duties contained in sub- section (b), each incumbent local exchange car- rier has the following duties: (1) Duty to negotiate The duty to negotiate in good faith in ac- cordance with section 252 of this title the par- ticular terms and conditions of agreements to fulfill the duties described in paragraphs (1) through (5) of subsection (b) and this sub- section. The requesting telecommunications carrier also has the duty to negotiate in good faith the terms and conditions of such agree- ments. (2) Interconnection The duty to provide, for the facilities and equipment of any requesting telecommuni- cations carrier, interconnection with the local exchange carrier’s network— (A) for the transmission and routing of telephone exchange service and exchange ac- cess; (B) at any technically feasible point with- in the carrier’s network; (C) that is at least equal in quality to that provided by the local exchange carrier to itself or to any subsidiary, affiliate, or any other party to which the carrier provides interconnection; and (D) on rates, terms, and conditions that are just, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory, in accordance with the terms and conditions of the agreement and the requirements of this section and section 252 of this title. (3) Unbundled access The duty to provide, to any requesting tele- communications carrier for the provision of a telecommunications service, nondiscrim- inatory access to network elements on an unbundled basis at any technically feasible point on rates, terms, and conditions that are just, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory in ac- cordance with the terms and conditions of the agreement and the requirements of this sec- tion and section 252 of this title. An incum- bent local exchange carrier shall provide such unbundled network elements in a manner that allows requesting carriers to combine such elements in order to provide such tele- communications service. (4) Resale The duty— (A) to offer for resale at wholesale rates any telecommunications service that the carrier provides at retail to subscribers who are not telecommunications carriers; and (B) not to prohibit, and not to impose un- reasonable or discriminatory conditions or limitations on, the resale of such tele- communications service, except that a State commission may, consistent with regula- tions prescribed by the Commission under