A. A commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally publishes or distributes material on an internet website, including a social media platform, of which more than one-third is sexual material that is harmful to minors shall use reasonable age verification methods to verify that an individual who attempts to access the material is eighteen years of age or older.
B. A commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally publishes or distributes material on an internet website or a third-party entity that performs age verification pursuant to this section shall require an individual to do either of the following:
1. Provide a form of digital identification that does not cause or allow the individual's identifying information to be transmitted to any federal, state or local government entity.
2. Comply with a commercial age verification system that does not cause or allow the individual's identifying information to be transmitted to any federal, state or local government entity and verifies age using either of the following:
(a) Government-issued identification.
(b) A commercially reasonable method that relies on public or private transactional data to verify the age of an individual.
C. A commercial entity or a third-party entity that performs the age verification that is required by this section may not retain any identifying information of the individual and may not cause or allow any identifying information of the individual to be directly or indirectly transmitted to any federal, state or local government entity.
D. This section does not apply to a bona fide news or public interest broadcast, website video, report or event and may not be construed to affect the rights of a news-gathering organization.
E. An internet service provider, or its affiliates or subsidiaries, a search engine or a cloud service provider may not be held to have violated this section solely for providing access or connection to or from a website or other information or content on the internet or on a facility, system or network not under that internet service provider's control, including transmission, downloading, intermediate storage, access software or other services to the extent that the internet service provider or search engine is not responsible for the creation of the content that constitutes sexual material that is harmful to minors.
F. The parent or guardian of a minor who accesses material harmful to minors and a person whose identifying information was retained or transmitted because of an entity's violation of this section has a right of action against the offending entity. The court may award a successful plaintiff in an action brought pursuant to this section a penalty for a violation of this section:
1. In an amount equal to not more than the total, if applicable, of both of the following:
(a) $10,000 per day that the entity operates an internet website in violation of the age verification requirements of this section.
(b) $10,000 per instance when the entity retains or transmits identifying information in violation of subsection C of this section.
2. For an additional amount of not more than $250,000 if, because of the entity's violation of the age verification requirements of this section, one or more minors accesses sexual material that is harmful to minors.
G. The court shall determine the amount of a penalty that is imposed pursuant to this section based on all of the following factors:
1. The seriousness of the violation, including the nature, circumstances, extent and gravity of the violation.
2. The history of previous violations.
3. The amount necessary to deter a future violation.
4. The economic effect of a penalty on the entity on whom the penalty will be imposed.
5. The entity's knowledge that the act constituted a violation of this section.
6. Any other matter that justice may require.
H. A successful plaintiff may recover reasonable and necessary attorney fees and costs that are incurred in an action under this section.
I. In any action that is brought or maintained pursuant to this section, all personally identifiable information of users, including the user's name, shall be redacted before the information is produced.
J. For the purposes of this section:
1. "Commercial entity" includes a corporation, limited liability company, partnership, limited partnership, sole proprietorship or other legally recognized business entity.
2. "Digital identification" means information that is stored on a digital network that may be accessed by a commercial entity and that serves as proof of the identity of an individual.
3. "Distribute" means to issue, sell, give, provide, deliver, transfer, transmute, circulate or disseminate by any means.
4. "Minor" means an individual under eighteen years of age.
5. "News-gathering organization" includes the following:
(a) An employee of a newspaper, news publication or news source, printed or on an online or mobile platform, of current news and public interest, who is acting within the course and scope of that employment and can provide documentation of that employment with the newspaper, news publication or news source.
(b) An employee of a radio broadcast station, television broadcast station, cable television operator or wire service who is acting within the course and scope of that employment and can provide documentation of that employment.
6. "Publish" means to communicate or make information available to another person or entity on a publicly available internet website.
7. "Sexual material that is harmful to minors" includes any material that:
(a) The average person applying contemporary community standards would find, taking the material as a whole and with respect to minors, is designed to appeal to or pander to the prurient interest;
(b) In a manner patently offensive with respect to minors, exploits, is devoted to, or principally consists of descriptions of actual, simulated or animated displays or depictions of any of the following:
(i) A person's pubic hair, anus or genitals or the nipple of the female breast;
(ii) Touching, caressing or fondling of nipples, breasts, buttocks, anuses or genitals;
(iii) Sexual intercourse, masturbation, sodomy, bestiality, oral copulation, flagellation, excretory functions, exhibitions or any other sexual act and
(c) Taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for minors.
8. "Transactional data":
(a) Means a sequence of information that documents an exchange, agreement, or transfer between an individual, commercial entity or third-party entity that is used to satisfy a request or event.
(b) Includes records from mortgage, education and employment entities.