SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 
(1) Over the 3 decades preceding the date of 
enactment of this Act, Congress has passed several 
bills to protect minors from access to online porno-
graphic content, including title V of the Tele-
communications Act of 1996 (Public Law 104–104) 
(commonly known as the ‘‘Communications Decency 
Act’’), section 231 of the Communications Act of 
1934 (47 U.S.C. 231) (commonly known as the 
‘‘Child Online Protection Act’’), and the Children’s 
Internet Protection Act (title XVII of division B of 
Public Law 106–554). 
(2) With the exception of the Children’s Inter-
net Protection Act (title XVII of division B of Public 
Law 106–554), the Supreme Court of the United 
States has struck down the previous efforts of Con-
gress to shield children from pornographic content, 
finding that such legislation constituted a ‘‘compel-
ling government interest’’ but that it was not the 
least restrictive means to achieve such interest. In 
Ashcroft v. ACLU, 542 U.S. 656 (2004), the Court 
even suggested at the time that ‘‘blocking and fil-
tering software’’ could conceivably be a ‘‘primary al-
ternative’’ to the requirements passed by Congress. 
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(3) In the nearly 2 decades since the Supreme 
Court of the United States suggested the use of 
‘‘blocking and filtering software’’, such technology 
has proven to be ineffective in protecting minors 
from accessing online pornographic content. The 
Kaiser Family Foundation has found that filters do 
not work on 1 in 10 pornography sites accessed in-
tentionally and 1 in 3 pornography sites that are 
accessed unintentionally. Further, it has been proven 
that children are able to bypass ‘‘blocking and fil-
tering’’ software by employing strategic searches or 
measures to bypass the software completely. 
(4) Additionally, Pew Research has revealed 
studies showing that only 39 percent of parents use 
blocking or filtering software for their minor’s online 
activities, meaning that 61 percent of children only 
have restrictions on their internet access when they 
are at school or at a library. 
(5) 17 States have now recognized pornography 
as a public health hazard that leads to a broad 
range of individual harms, societal harms, and pub-
lic health impacts. 
(6) It is estimated that 80 percent of minors 
between the ages of 12 to 17 have been exposed to 
pornography, with 54 percent of teenagers seeking it 
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out. The internet is the most common source for mi-
nors to access pornography with pornographic 
websites receiving more web traffic in the United 
States 
than 
Twitter, 
Netflix, 
Pinterest, 
and 
LinkedIn combined. 
(7) Exposure to online pornography has created 
unique psychological effects for minors, including 
anxiety, addiction, low self-esteem, body image dis-
orders, an increase in problematic sexual activity at 
younger ages, and an increased desire among minors 
to engage in risky sexual behavior. 
(8) The Supreme Court of the United States 
has recognized on multiple occasions that Congress 
has a ‘‘compelling government interest’’ to protect 
the physical and psychological well-being of minors, 
which includes shielding them from ‘‘indecent’’ con-
tent that may not necessarily be considered ‘‘ob-
scene’’ by adult standards. 
(9) Because ‘‘blocking and filtering software’’ 
has not produced the results envisioned nearly 2 dec-
ades ago, it is necessary for Congress to pursue al-
ternative policies to enable the protection of the 
physical and psychological well-being of minors. 
(10) The evolution of our technology has now 
enabled the use of age verification technology that is 
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cost efficient, not unduly burdensome, and can be 
operated narrowly in a manner that ensures only 
adults have access to a website’s online pornographic 
content. 
(b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-
gress that— 
(1) shielding minors from access to online por-
nographic content is a compelling government inter-
est that protects the physical and psychological well- 
being of minors; and 
(2) requiring interactive computer services that 
are in the business of creating, hosting, or making 
available pornographic content to enact technological 
measures that shield minors from accessing porno-
graphic content on their platforms is the least re-
strictive means for Congress to achieve its compel-
ling government interest. 
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) CHILD PORNOGRAPHY; MINOR.—The terms 
‘‘child pornography’’ and ‘‘minor’’ have the mean-
ings given those terms in section 2256 of title 18, 
United States Code. 
(2) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 
means the Federal Trade Commission. 
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(3) COVERED PLATFORM.—The term ‘‘covered 
platform’’— 
(A) means an entity— 
(i) that is an interactive computer 
service; 
(ii) that— 
(I) is engaged in interstate or 
foreign commerce; or 
(II) purposefully avails itself of 
the United States market or a portion 
thereof; and 
(iii) for which it is in the regular 
course of the trade or business of the enti-
ty to create, host, or make available con-
tent that meets the definition of harmful to 
minors under paragraph (4) and that is 
provided by the entity, a user, or other in-
formation content provider, with the objec-
tive of earning a profit; and 
(B) includes an entity described in sub-
paragraph (A) regardless of whether— 
(i) the entity earns a profit on the ac-
tivities described in subparagraph (A)(iii); 
or 
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