lated subsection (c) or (d), the court may, 
in its discretion, increase the amount of 
the award to not more than 3 times the 
amount available under clause (i)(II) of 
this subparagraph. 
‘‘(2) ACTIONS BY STATES.— 
‘‘(A) AUTHORITY OF STATES.— 
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Whenever the at-
torney general of a State, or an official or 
agency designated by a State, has reason 
to believe that any person has engaged or 
is engaging in a pattern or practice of vio-
lating subsection (c) or (d) that has threat-
ened or adversely affected or is threatening 
or adversely affecting an interest of the 
residents of that State, the State may 
bring a civil action against the person on 
behalf of the residents of the State for any 
relief permitted under clause (ii) of this 
subparagraph. 
‘‘(ii) RELIEF.— 
‘‘(I) IN GENERAL.—The plaintiff 
may seek the following relief in a civil 
action brought under clause (i): 
‘‘(aa) An injunction. 
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‘‘(bb) An award that is the 
greater of— 
‘‘(AA) actual damages; 
or 
‘‘(BB) damages in the 
amount of $500 for each 
violation. 
‘‘(II) WILLFUL OR KNOWING VIO-
LATIONS.—In a civil action brought 
under clause (i), if the court finds 
that the defendant willfully or know-
ingly violated subsection (c) or (d), 
the court may, in its discretion, in-
crease the amount of the award to not 
more than 3 times the amount avail-
able under subclause (I)(bb) of this 
clause. 
‘‘(B) INVESTIGATORY POWERS.—For pur-
poses of bringing a civil action under this para-
graph, nothing in this section shall prevent the 
attorney general of a State, or an official or 
agency designated by a State, from exercising 
the powers conferred on the attorney general or 
the official by the laws of the State to— 
‘‘(i) conduct investigations; 
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‘‘(ii) administer oaths or affirmations; 
or 
‘‘(iii) compel the attendance of wit-
nesses or the production of documentary 
and other evidence. 
‘‘(C) EFFECT
ON
STATE
COURT
PRO-
CEEDINGS.—Nothing in this paragraph shall be 
construed to prohibit an authorized State offi-
cial from proceeding in State court on the basis 
of an alleged violation of any general civil or 
criminal statute of the State. 
‘‘(D) ATTORNEY GENERAL DEFINED.—For 
purposes of this paragraph, the term ‘attorney 
general’ means the chief legal officer of a State. 
‘‘(3) VENUE; SERVICE OF PROCESS.— 
‘‘(A) VENUE.—A civil action brought 
under this subsection may be brought in the lo-
cation where— 
‘‘(i) the defendant— 
‘‘(I) is found; 
‘‘(II) is an inhabitant; or 
‘‘(III) transacts business; or 
‘‘(ii) the violation occurred or is oc-
curring. 
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‘‘(B) SERVICE OF PROCESS.—Process in a 
civil action brought under this subsection may 
be served where the defendant— 
‘‘(i) is an inhabitant; or 
‘‘(ii) may be found. 
‘‘(g) OBLIGATIONS
OF
INTERACTIVE
COMPUTER 
SERVICE.—A provider of an interactive computer service 
shall, at the time of entering an agreement with a cus-
tomer for the provision of interactive computer service and 
in a manner deemed appropriate by the provider, notify 
the customer that parental control protections (such as 
computer hardware, software, or filtering services) are 
commercially available that may assist the customer in 
limiting access to material that is harmful to minors. The 
notice shall identify, or provide the customer with access 
to material identifying, current providers of such protec-
tions. 
‘‘(h) EFFECT ON OTHER LAWS.— 
‘‘(1) NO EFFECT ON CRIMINAL LAW.—Nothing 
in this section shall be construed to impair the en-
forcement of section 223 or 231 of this Act, chapter 
71 (relating to obscenity) or 110 (relating to sexual 
exploitation of children) of title 18, United States 
Code, or any other Federal criminal statute. 
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‘‘(2) NO EFFECT ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY 
LAW.—Nothing in this section shall be construed to 
limit or expand any law pertaining to intellectual 
property. 
‘‘(3) STATE LAW.—Nothing in this section shall 
be construed to prevent any State from enforcing 
any State law that is consistent with this section. No 
cause of action may be brought and no liability may 
be imposed under any State or local law that is in-
consistent with this section. 
‘‘(4) NO EFFECT ON COMMUNICATIONS PRIVACY 
LAW.—Nothing in this section shall be construed to 
limit the application of the Electronic Communica-
tions Privacy Act of 1986 or any of the amendments 
made by such Act, or any similar State law. 
‘‘(5) NO EFFECT ON SEX TRAFFICKING LAW.— 
Nothing in this section (other than subsection 
(e)(2)(A)(i)) shall be construed to impair or limit— 
‘‘(A) any claim in a civil action brought 
under section 1595 of title 18, United States 
Code, if the conduct underlying the claim con-
stitutes a violation of section 1591 of that title; 
‘‘(B) any charge in a criminal prosecution 
brought under State law if the conduct under-
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lying the charge would constitute a violation of 
section 1591 of title 18, United States Code; or 
‘‘(C) any charge in a criminal prosecution 
brought under State law if the conduct under-
lying the charge would constitute a violation of 
section 2421A of title 18, United States Code, 
and promotion or facilitation of prostitution is 
illegal in the jurisdiction where the defendant’s 
promotion or facilitation of prostitution was 
targeted. 
‘‘(i) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this section: 
‘‘(1) ACCESS SOFTWARE PROVIDER.—The term 
‘access software provider’ means a provider of soft-
ware (including client or server software), or ena-
bling tools that do any one or more of the following: 
‘‘(A) Filter, screen, allow, or disallow ma-
terial. 
‘‘(B) Pick, choose, analyze, or digest mate-
rial. 
‘‘(C) Transmit, receive, display, forward, 
cache, search, subset, organize, reorganize, or 
translate material. 
‘‘(2) BROADBAND
INTERNET
ACCESS
SERV-
ICE.—The term ‘broadband internet access service’ 
has the meaning given the term in section 8.1(b) of 
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title 47, Code of Federal Regulations, or any suc-
cessor regulation. 
‘‘(3) COMMON
CARRIER
TECHNOLOGY
COM-
PANY.—The term ‘common carrier technology com-
pany’ means a provider of an interactive computer 
service that— 
‘‘(A) offers its services to the public; and 
‘‘(B) has more than 100,000,000 world-
wide active monthly users. 
‘‘(4) INFORMATION CONTENT PROVIDER.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘information 
content provider’ means any person or entity 
that is responsible, in whole or in part, for the 
creation or development of material provided 
through the internet or any other interactive 
computer service. 
‘‘(B) 
RESPONSIBILITY
DEFINED.—For 
purposes of subparagraph (A), the term ‘re-
sponsible, in whole or in part, for the creation 
or development of material’ includes affirma-
tively and substantively contributing to, modi-
fying, altering, presenting with a reasonably 
discernible viewpoint, commenting upon, or edi-
torializing about material provided by another 
person or entity. 
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‘‘(5) INTERACTIVE
COMPUTER
SERVICE.—The 
term ‘interactive computer service’ means any infor-
mation service, system, or access software provider 
that provides or enables computer access by multiple 
users to a computer server, including specifically a 
service or system that provides access to the internet 
and such systems operated or services offered by li-
braries or educational institutions. 
‘‘(6) INTERNET.—The term ‘internet’ means 
the international computer network of both Federal 
and non-Federal interoperable packet switched data 
networks. 
‘‘(7) MATERIAL.—The term ‘material’ means 
any data, regardless of physical form or char-
acteristic, including— 
‘‘(A) written or printed matter, informa-
tion, automated information systems storage 
media, maps, charts, paintings, drawings, films, 
photographs, 
images, 
videos, 
engravings, 
sketches, working notes, or papers, or reproduc-
tions of any such things by any means or proc-
ess; and 
‘‘(B) sound, voice, magnetic, or electronic 
recordings.’’. 
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.— 
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(1) COMMUNICATIONS ACT OF 1934.—The Com-
munications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 151 et seq.) is 
amended— 
(A) in section 223(h)(2) (47 U.S.C. 
223(h)(2)), by striking ‘‘section 230(f)(2)’’ and 
inserting ‘‘section 232’’; and 
(B) in section 231(b)(4) (47 U.S.C. 
231(b)(4)), by striking ‘‘section 230’’ and in-
serting ‘‘section 232’’. 
(2) TRADEMARK ACT OF 1946.—Section 45 of 
the Act entitled ‘‘An Act to provide for the registra-
tion and protection of trademarks used in commerce, 
to carry out the provisions of certain international 
conventions, and for other purposes’’, approved July 
5, 1946 (commonly known as the ‘‘Trademark Act 
of 1946’’) (15 U.S.C. 1127), is amended by striking 
the definition relating to the term ‘‘Internet’’ and in-
serting the following: 
‘‘The term ‘internet’ has the meaning given that term 
in section 232 of the Communications Act of 1934.’’. 
(3) TITLE 17, UNITED STATES CODE.—Section 
1401(g) of title 17, United States Code, is amend-
ed— 
(A) by striking ‘‘section 230 of the Com-
munications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230)’’ and 
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inserting ‘‘section 232 of the Communications 
Act of 1934’’; and 
(B) by striking ‘‘subsection (e)(2) of such 
section 230’’ and inserting ‘‘subsection (h)(2) of 
such section 232’’. 
(4) TITLE 18, UNITED STATES CODE.—Part I of 
title 18, United States Code, is amended— 
(A) in section 2257(h)(2)(B)(v), by strik-
ing ‘‘section 230(c) of the Communications Act 
of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230(c))’’ and inserting 
‘‘section 232(e) of the Communications Act of 
1934’’; and 
(B) in section 2421A— 
(i) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘(as 
such term is defined in defined in section 
230(f) the Communications Act of 1934 
(47 U.S.C. 230(f)))’’ and inserting ‘‘(as 
that term is defined in section 232 of the 
Communications Act of 1934)’’; and 
(ii) in subsection (b), by striking ‘‘(as 
such term is defined in defined in section 
230(f) the Communications Act of 1934 
(47 U.S.C. 230(f)))’’ and inserting ‘‘(as 
that term is defined in section 232 of the 
Communications Act of 1934)’’. 
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(5) CONTROLLED
SUBSTANCES
ACT.—Section 
401(h)(3)(A)(iii)(II) of the Controlled Substances 
Act (21 U.S.C. 841(h)(3)(A)(iii)(II)) is amended by 
striking ‘‘section 230(c) of the Communications Act 
of 1934’’ and inserting ‘‘section 232(e) of the Com-
munications Act of 1934’’. 
(6) WEBB-KENYON
ACT.—Section 3(b)(1) of 
the Act entitled ‘‘An Act divesting intoxicating liq-
uors of their interstate character in certain cases’’, 
approved March 1, 1913 (commonly known as the 
‘‘Webb-Kenyon Act’’) (27 U.S.C. 122b(b)(1)), is 
amended by striking ‘‘(as defined in section 230(f) 
of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 
230(f))’’ and inserting ‘‘(as defined in section 232 of 
the Communications Act of 1934)’’. 
(7) TITLE 28, UNITED STATES CODE.—Section 
4102 of title 28, United States Code, is amended— 
(A) in subsection (c)— 
(i) by striking ‘‘section 230 of the 
Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 
230)’’ and inserting ‘‘section 232 of the 
Communications Act of 1934’’; and 
(ii) by striking ‘‘section 230 if’’ and 
inserting ‘‘that section if’’; and 
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(B) in subsection (e)(2), by striking ‘‘sec-
tion 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 
(47 U.S.C. 230)’’ and inserting ‘‘section 232 of 
the Communications Act of 1934’’. 
(8) TITLE 31, UNITED STATES CODE.—Section 
5362(6) of title 31, United States Code, is amended 
by striking ‘‘section 230(f) of the Communications 
Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230(f))’’ and inserting ‘‘sec-
tion 232 of the Communications Act of 1934’’. 
(9) NATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND IN-
FORMATION ADMINISTRATION ORGANIZATION ACT.— 
Section 157(e)(1) of the National Telecommuni-
cations and Information Administration Organiza-
tion Act (47 U.S.C. 941(e)(1)) is amended, in the 
matter preceding subparagraph (A), by striking 
‘‘section 230(c) of the Communications Act of 1934 
(47 U.S.C. 230(c))’’ and inserting ‘‘section 232(e) of 
the Communications Act of 1934’’. 
(c) APPLICABILITY.—Subsections (c) and (d) of sec-
tion 232 of the Communications Act of 1934, as added 
by subsection (a), shall apply to a common carrier tech-
nology company on and after the date that is 90 days after 
the date of enactment of this Act. 
Æ 
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