Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Child Online Protec-
tion Act’’.
TITLE 
I—PROTECTION 
FROM
MATERIAL THAT IS HARMFUL
TO MINORS
SEC. 101. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS.
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 super-
vision 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 in-
novative ways to help parents and educators restrict
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
harmful material found on the Internet.
SEC. 102. REQUIREMENT TO RESTRICT ACCESS BY MINORS
TO 
MATERIALS 
COMMERCIALLY 
DISTRIB-
UTED BY MEANS OF THE WORLD WIDE WEB
THAT ARE HARMFUL TO MINORS.
Part I of title II of the Communications Act of 1934
(47 U.S.C. 201 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end
the following new section:
‘‘SEC. 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 know-
ingly and with knowledge of the character of the ma-
terial, in interstate or foreign commerce by means of
the World Wide Web, makes any communication for
commercial 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, im-
prisoned not more than 6 months, or both.
‘‘(2) INTENTIONAL VIOLATIONS.—In addition to
the penalties under paragraph (1), whoever inten-
tionally violates such paragraph shall be subject to
a fine of not more than $50,000 for each violation.
For purposes of this paragraph, each day of viola-
tion shall constitute a separate violation.
‘‘(3) CIVIL PENALTY.—In addition to the pen-
alties under paragraphs (1) and (2), whoever vio-
lates paragraph (1) shall be subject to a civil penalty
of not more than $50,000 for each violation. For
purposes 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, without selection or alter-
ation of the content of the communication, except
that such person’s deletion of a particular commu-
nication or material made by another person in a
manner consistent with subsection (c) or section 230
shall not constitute such selection or alteration of
the content of the communication.
‘‘(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 per-
sonal 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 ad-
ministrative 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 de-
fense authorized under this subsection or otherwise
to restrict 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 sub-
section (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 written or elec-
tronic consent of—
‘‘(i) the individual concerned, if the
individual is an adult; or
‘‘(ii) the individual’s parent or guard-
ian, 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 com-
munication described in subsection (a) may disclose
such information if the disclosure is—
‘‘(A) necessary to make the communication
or conduct a legitimate business activity related
to making the communication; or
‘‘(B) made pursuant to a court order au-
thorizing such disclosure.
‘‘(e) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this subsection,
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
BUSINESS.—
‘‘(A) COMMERCIAL PURPOSES.—A person
shall be considered to make a communication
for commercial purposes only if such person is
engaged in the business of making such com-
munications.
‘‘(B) ENGAGED IN THE BUSINESS.—The
term ‘engaged in the business’ means that the
person who makes a communication, or offers
to make a communication, by means of the
World Wide Web, that includes any material
that is harmful to minors, devotes time, atten-
tion, or labor to such activities, as a regular
course of such person’s trade or business, with
the objective of earning a profit as a result of
such activities (although it is not necessary that
the person make a profit or that the making or
offering to make such communications be the
person’s sole or principal business or source of
income). A person may be considered to be en-
gaged in the business of making, by means of
the World Wide Web, communications for com-
mercial purposes that include material that is
harmful to minors, only if the person knowingly
causes the material that is harmful 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 electro-
magnetic transmission media, and related equipment
and software, comprising the interconnected world-
wide 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 include access to proprietary content, informa-
tion, and other services as part of a package of serv-
ices offered to consumers. Such term does not in-
clude telecommunications services.
‘‘(5) 
INTERNET
INFORMATION
LOCATION
TOOL.—The term ‘Internet information location tool’
means a service that refers or links users to an on-
line location on the World Wide Web. Such term in-
cludes directories, indices, references, pointers, and
hypertext links.
‘‘(6) MATERIAL
THAT
IS
HARMFUL
TO
MI-
NORS.—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 respect to mi-
nors, 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 mi-
nors, an actual or simulated sexual act or sex-
ual contact, an actual or simulated normal or
perverted sexual act, or a lewd exhibition of the
genitals or post-pubescent female 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 per-
son under 17 years of age.’’.
SEC. 103. NOTICE REQUIREMENT.
(a) NOTICE.—Section 230 of the Communications
Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230) is amended—
(1) in subsection (d)(1), by inserting ‘‘or 231’’
after ‘‘section 223’’;
(2) by redesignating subsections (d) and (e) as
subsections (e) and (f), respectively; and
(3) by inserting after subsection (c) the follow-
ing new subsection:
‘‘(d) OBLIGATIONS
OF
INTERACTIVE
COMPUTER
SERVICE.—A provider of 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
such 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. Such
notice shall identify, or provide the customer with access
to information identifying, current providers of such pro-
tections.’’.
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 223(h)(2)
of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 223(h)(2))
is amended by striking ‘‘230(e)(2)’’ and inserting
‘‘230(f)(2)’’.
SEC. 104. STUDY BY COMMISSION ON ONLINE CHILD PRO-
TECTION.
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is hereby established a
temporary Commission to be known as the Commission
on Online Child Protection (in this section referred to as
the ‘‘Commission’’) for the purpose of conducting a study
under this section regarding methods to help reduce access
by minors to material that is harmful to minors on the
Internet.
(b) MEMBERSHIP.—The Commission shall be com-
posed of 19 members, as follows:
(1) INDUSTRY
MEMBERS.—The Commission
shall include—
(A) 2 members who are engaged in the
business of providing Internet filtering or block-
ing services or software;
(B) 2 members who are engaged in the
business of providing Internet access services;
(C) 2 members who are engaged in the
business of providing labeling or ratings serv-
ices;
(D) 2 members who are engaged in the
business of providing Internet portal or search
services;
(A) will help reduce access by minors to
material that is harmful to minors on the Inter-
net; and
(B) may meet the requirements for use as
affirmative defenses for purposes of section
231(c) of the Communications Act of 1934 (as
added by this Act).
Any methods so identified shall be used as the basis
for making legislative recommendations to the Con-
gress under subsection (d)(3).
(2) SPECIFIC METHODS.—In carrying out the
study, the Commission shall identify and analyze
various technological tools and methods for protect-
ing minors from material that is harmful to minors,
which shall include (without limitation)—
(A) a common resource for parents to use
to help protect minors (such as a ‘‘one-click-
away’’ resource);
(B) filtering or blocking software or serv-
ices;
(C) labeling or rating systems;
(D) age verification systems;
(E) the establishment of a domain name
for posting of any material that is harmful to
minors; and