Online Age Verification and Child Safety Act

[prima]

If this passes as is, US operators are dead. I believe it is impossible to verify age without requiring documents similar to 2257, and NO ONE is going to send copies of ID cards to a TGP/MGP/TUBE/Paysite.

This horrible bill covers everything:

alcohol, cigarettes and tobacco, fireworks, gambling, handguns, pornographic material, and any other product or service that the Commission determines is age-restricted under Federal or State law.

What about tickets to R rated movies? What about renting a car? What about.. you get the idea.

Full bill as written: GovTrack: H.R. 4059: Text of Legislation, Introduced in House

TITLE I--AGE VERIFICATION

SEC. 101. AGE VERIFICATION REQUIREMENT.

(a) Pornographic Material in General- It is unlawful for an operator of any pornographic website accessible by any computer located within the United States to display any pornographic material, including free content that may be available prior to the purchase of a subscription or product, without first verifying that any user attempting to access their site is 18 years of age or older in a manner consistent with the regulations prescribed under subsection (c).


(b) Financial Transactions Requiring Age Verification-

(1) IN GENERAL- It is unlawful for an operator of any website accessible by any computer located within the United States to carry out any financial transaction relating to any product or service whose sale or access to persons under a legally specified age is prohibited by law, without first verifying that each user attempting to carry out the transaction meets the legally required age limitation, consistent with the regulations prescribed under subsection (c).


(2) SCOPE- The product or services subject to paragraph (1) include alcohol, cigarettes and tobacco, fireworks, gambling, handguns, pornographic material, and any other product or service that the Commission determines is age-restricted under Federal or State law.



(c) Regulations- Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Commission, in accordance with section 553 of title 5, United States Code, shall promulgate regulations that--

(1) require the operator of any website or online service described in subsection (a) or (b) to--

(A) establish and maintain a system of internal policies, procedures and controls to ensure that no such material is displayed to any user attempting to access their site without first verifying that the user is 18 years or older;


(B) limit the use of any personal information collected by the website to age verification, except with the express consent of the user;


(C) establish and maintain reasonable procedures to protect the confidentiality, security, and integrity of personal information collected by the website; and


(D) undertake an independent audit function to test the system;



(2) allow the operator to terminate service to any user who fails to provide information sufficient to verify that the user meets the age requirement relating to the products, services, or content provided by the website; and


(3) establish a system under which the Commission develops and maintains a regularly updated list of operators and online sites displaying pornographic material which are not in compliance with this section.

[Dred]

Most operators (myself included) will prolly just use an enter page showing dropdown menus where you choose Month, Day and Year of birth, then the visitor will enter their first and last name as an electronic signature.

Either that or AVS' will be making a comeback...lol

[crockett]

I'm pretty sure even if it did pass, it would get over turned for being unconstitutional. The govt can't force a regulation that is impossible to comply with. I don't think I'd worry about it too much TBH.

[NobleSavage]

We were talking about this in the political forum:

http://www.askdamagex.com/f19/i-stand-corrected-40873/

[NobleSavage]

Either that or AVS' will be making a comeback...lol

That is what I was thinking, but the only way it would work is if you had an international treaty or something like WIPO for adult content. If not, the porn industry would just leave the US.

If they could enforce it globally it might be the best thing for the industry...to kill off the glut of free stuff.

[prima]

Most operators (myself included) will prolly just use an enter page showing dropdown menus where you choose Month, Day and Year of birth, then the visitor will enter their first and last name as an electronic signature.

Either that or AVS' will be making a comeback...lol

The problem is, the drop down and electronic signature isn't binding on a minor.

Plus, having access to a credit card is not proof of age. I forget the ruling or decision, but that's why AVS's went away, for the most part.

If this passes, they're going to require actual verification. How they plan to achieve that, I have no idea, and I think, neither do they. I think the point is that it's nearly impossible to actually do, and they pretty much want to see porn sites go away.

Will it pass as written? I doubt it. There's a chilling effect and a privacy issue - a person of majority should not have to give proof of identity to purchase a legal product.

[NobleSavage]

I wish they would introduce a bill that says you are responsible for your children until they are legal adults.

[StickyGreen]

lmao, "they" do not want pornsites to go away. Porn is part of the planned moral decline of the United States. Look up the Tavistock Institute........

[PXN]

Do the government really think they can regulate this? Seriously speaking here. There are millions of porn sites out there and they think they can regulate how we should operate our site? Good luck then. If you look at software company like MS or the music industry they can't even shut down nor force web sites to comply with current laws.

They should spend their resources and money going after terrorist or finding ch_ld predators who lurk around online.

[Spence]

I wish they would introduce a bill that says you are responsible for your children until they are legal adults.

Finally something we agree on

[GForce]

The law already says you are responsible for your children until they reach the age of majority. Plenty of criminal statutes will remind you of that.

If your child commits malicious mischief you as the parent are responsible for the damage.

The way we are going we are going to regulate ourselves into extinction. The more laws the bigger the government needs to get and the more taxes need to be raised. I guess perhaps government is the next big bubble.

The fact of the matter is that we really do not need most of the laws that are on the books. But if we took responsibility and quit saying there ought to be a law everytime some isolated event takes place then perhaps we would not need legislators. It will never happen.

[AmateurFlix]

I guess perhaps government is the next big bubble.

Poignant quote of the year.

[Thumb Angels]

USA belongs to the Indians, what rights to the US gov have really?
Someone should kick their ass

[Head Boy]

There is no way a web site can verify facts about a surfer. The onus is on the person controlling the computer to restrict access for minors. The system was designed into the basic HTML structure, so why don't they just use the correct meta tag.

If the US continues to demonstarte its lack of computing and internet knowledge, then sites will just be hosted in and operated from counties that do have such an understanding.

[Spence]

Well said Gforce