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GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA SESSION 2023 H 2 HOUSE BILL 534 Committee Substitute Favorable 5/3/23 Short Title:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA SESSION 2023 H 1 HOUSE BILL 534 Short Title:
Age Verification to Protect Children Act.
Protecting School Employees.
Representatives N.
Jackson, Carson Smith, Stevens, and Biggs (Primary Sponsors).
For a complete list of sponsors, refer to the North Carolina General Assembly web site.
March 30, 2023 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT TO CREATE LIABILITY FOR PUBLISHERS AND DISTRIBUTORS OF MATERIALHARMFUL TO MINORS, TO PROVIDE FOR THE INVESTIGATION AND PURSUIT OF ACTIONS BY THE ATTORNEY GENERAL, TO PROVIDE CIVIL PENALTIES FOR FAILURE TO PERFORM AGE VERIFICATION, AND OTHER RELATED MATTERS.
Judiciary 2, if favorable, Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House March 30, 2023 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT TO INCREASE THE PUNISHMENT FOR A PERSON WHO COMMITS A SECOND OR SUBSEQUENT OFFENSE OF ASSAULTING A SCHOOL EMPLOYEE OR SCHOOL VOLUNTEER.
Chapter 66 of the General Statutes is amended byadding a new Article to read:
G.S.
"Article 51.
14-33 reads as rewritten:
"Commercial Publication and Distribution of Material Harmful to Minors.
"§ 14-33.
"§ 66-500.
Misdemeanor assaults, batteries, and affrays, simple and aggravated;
Short title;
punishments.
definitions.
… (c) Unless the conduct is covered under some other provision of law providing greater punishment, any person who commits any assault, assault and battery, or affray is guilty of a Class A1 misdemeanor if, in the course of the assault, assault and battery, or affray, he or she:she does any of the following:
(a) This Article shall be known as the PornographyAge Verification Enforcement Act or the PAVE Act.
(1) Inflicts serious injury upon another person or uses a deadly weapon;weapon.
(b) The following definitions shall apply to this Article:
(2) Assaults a female, he being a male person at least 18 years of age;age.
(1) Commercial entity.
(3) Assaults a child under the age of 12 years;years.
– Corporations, limited liability companies, partnerships, limited partnerships, sole proprietorships, or other legally recognized entities.
(4) Assaults an officer or employee of the State or any political subdivision of the State, when the officer or employee is discharging or attempting to discharge his official duties;duties.
(2) Distribute.
… (6) Assaults a school employee or school volunteer when the employee or volunteer is discharging or attempting to discharge his or her duties as an employee or volunteer, or assaults a school employee or school volunteer as a result of the discharge or attempt to discharge that individual's duties as a school employee or school volunteer.
– To issue, sell, give, provide, deliver, transfer, transmute, circulate, or disseminate by any means.
For purposes of this subdivision, the following definitions shall apply:
(3) Harmful to minors.
– As defined in G.S.
14-190.13.
(4) Internet.– Theinternationalcomputernetworkofbothfederal andnon-federal interoperable packet switched data networks.
(5) Material.
– As defined in G.S.
14-190.13.
(6) News-gathering organization.
– Any of the following:
An employee of a newspaper, news publication, or news source, printed or on an online or mobile platform, of current news and public interest, while operating as an employee as provided in this sub-subdivision, who can provide documentation of such employment with the newspaper, news publication, or news source.
"Duties" means:
1.
All activities on school property;
2.
All activities, wherever occurring, during a school authorized event or the accompanying of students to or from that event;
and 3.
All activities relating to the operation of school transportation.
A radio broadcast station, television broadcast station, cable television operator, or wire service, or an employee of a radio broadcast station, television broadcast station, cable television operator, or wire service.
"Employee" or "volunteer" means:
(7) Publish.
*H534-v-1* General Assembly Of North Carolina Session 2023 1.
– To communicate or make information available to another person or entity on a publicly available internet website.
An employee of a local board of education;
(8) Reasonable age verification methods.
or a charter school authorized under G.S.
– Verifying that a person seeking to access the material is 18 years of age or older by requiring the person *H534-v-2* General Assembly Of North Carolina Session 2023 attemptingtoaccessthematerialtocomplywithacommercialageverification system that verifies in any of the following ways:
115C-218.5, or a nonpublic school which has filed intent to operate under Part 1 or Part 2 of Article 39 of Chapter 115C of the General Statutes;
a.
2.
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Government-issued identification.
An independent contractor or an employee of an independent contractor of a local board of education, charter school authorized under G.S.
b.
115C-218.5, or a nonpublic school which has filed intent to operate under Part 1 or Part 2 of Article 39 of Chapter 115C of the General Statutes, if the independent contractor carries out duties customarily performed by employees of the school;
Any commercially reasonable method that relies on public or private transactional data to verify the age of the person attempting to access the information is at least 18 years of age or older.
and 3.
(9) Substantial portion.
An adult who volunteers his or her services or presence at any school activity and is under the supervision of an individual listed in sub-sub-subdivision 1.
– More than thirty-three and one-third percent (33 1/3%) of total material on a website, which meets the definition of material harmful to minors as defined in this subsection.
or 2.
"§ 66-501.
of this sub-subdivision.
Commercial publication and distribution of material harmful to minors;
(7) Assaults a public transit operator, including a public employee or a private contractor employed as a public transit operator, when the operator is discharging or attempting to discharge his or her duties.
civil penalty.
(8) Assaults a company police officer certified pursuant to the provisions of Chapter 74E of the General Statutes or a campus police officer certified pursuant to the provisions of Chapter 74G, Article 1 of Chapter 17C, or Chapter 116 of the General Statutes in the performance of that person's duties.
(a) Any commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally publishes or distributes material harmful to minors on the internet from a website that contains a substantial portion of such material shall be subject to civil penalties as provided in this section if the entity fails to perform reasonable age verification methods to verify the age of the individuals attempting to access the material.
(9) Assaults a transportation network company (TNC) driver providing a transportation network company (TNC) service.
(b) The Attorney General may conduct an investigation of the alleged violation and initiate a civil action in the Superior Court of Wake County on behalf of the State to assess civil penalties.
For the purposes of this subdivision, the definitions for "TNC driver" and "TNC service" as defined in G.S.
Prior to asserting a cause of action, the Attorney General shall provide the commercial entity with a period of time of not less than 30 days to comply with this section.
20-280.1 shall apply.
(c) Any commercial entity that violates this section may be liable for a civil penalty, to beassessedbythecourt,ofnotmorethanfivethousanddollars($5,000)for eachdayofviolation.
… (e) Unless the conduct is covered under some other provision of law providing greater punishment, a person who commits a second or subsequent violation of subdivision (6) of subsection (c) of this section is guilty of a Class G felony." SECTION 2.
Additionally, the Attorney General may request and the court may impose an additional civil penalty not to exceed ten thousand dollars ($10,000) for each violation of this section against any commercial entity found by the court to have knowingly failed to perform reasonable age verification methods to verify the age of the individuals attempting to access the material.
This act becomes effective December 1, 2023, and applies to offenses committed on or after that date.
Any civil penalties ordered by the court shall be collected by the Department of Justice and remitted to the Civil Penalty and Forfeiture Fund in accordance with Article 31A of Chapter 115C of the General Statutes.
Page 2 House Bill 534-First Edition
(d) Each violation of this section may be treated as a separate violation or may be combined into one violation at the option of the Attorney General.
(e) Anycommercial entitythat violatesthis sectionmaybeordered to payto the Attorney General all costs, expenses, and fees related to investigations and proceedings associated with the violation, including attorney fees.
(f) If the court assesses a civil penalty pursuant to this section, the judgment shall be subject to legal interest as provided in G.S.
24-5.
(g) This section shall not apply to any bona fide news or public interest broadcast, website, video, report, or event and shall not be construed to affect the rights of any news-gathering organization.
(h) No internet service provider, or its affiliates or subsidiaries, search engine, or cloud service provider shall be held to have violated the provisions of this section solely for providing access or connection to or from a website or other information or content on the internet or a facility, system, or network not under the control of that provider, including transmission, downloading, intermediate storage, access software, or other related capabilities, to the extent such provider is not responsible for the creation of the content of the communication that constitutes material harmful to minors." SECTION 2.
This act becomes effective January 1, 2024, and applies to websites accessed on or after that date.
Page 2 House Bill 534-Second Edition
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