United States of America: Adopted Online Protections for Minors Bill (HB 3)

On 6 March 2024, the Online Protections for Minors Bill (HB 3) was adopted by the Senate. The Senate amended the Bill to include additional definitions, including account holders, daily active users, and online services. The Bill would require commercial entities that publish or distribute harmful material to minors or operate a website or application that is built up by 33.3 per cent upon harmful material to perform reasonable age verification in order to prevent minors' access to harmful material. The reasonable age verification method would need to be conducted by an independent third party. The Bill defines harmful material to be material that appeals to the prurient interest, depicts or describes sexual conduct in a patently offensive way, or lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors. Furthermore, commercial entities within scope would need to provide reporting methods for unlawful access and would be prohibited from retaining certain personal identifying information. Lastly, the Bill stipulates civil penalties for breaches of this Bill of up to USD 50'000.