Text of IL SB 2590 (2024)

103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY State of Illinois 2023 and 2024 SB2590 Introduced 10/18/2023, by Sen. Erica Harriss and Sally J. Turner SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED: New Act 30 ILCS 105/5.990 new Creates the Adult Content Age Verification Act. Defines terms. Provides that a 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 material harmful to minors shall be subject to civil penalties if the entity fails to perform reasonable age verification methods to verify the age of individuals attempting to access the material. Provides that the Attorney General may investigate alleged violations and initiate a civil action for an injunction and to assess civil penalties. Provides that the civil penalties shall be deposited into the Cyber Exploitation of Children Fund, which shall be expended for the investigation of cybercrimes involving the exploitation of children and for no other purpose. Amends the State Finance Act to make a conforming change. LRB103 34076 SPS 63893 b A BILL FOR SB2590LRB103 34076 SPS 63893 b 1 AN ACT concerning civil law. 2 Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, 3represented in the General Assembly: 4 Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Adult 5Content Age Verification Act. 6 Section 5. Definitions. As used in this Act: 7 "Commercial entity" means a corporation, limited liability 8company, partnership, limited partnership, sole 9proprietorship, or another legally recognized entity. 10 "Distribute" means to issue, sell, give, provide, deliver, 11transfer, transmute, circulate, or disseminate by any means. 12 "Internet" means the international computer network of 13both federal and nonfederal interoperable packet switched data 14networks. 15 "Material harmful to minors" means all of the following: 16 (1) Material that the average person, applying 17 contemporary community standards, would find, taking the 18 material as a whole and with respect to minors, is 19 designed to appeal to, or is designed to pander to, the 20 prurient interest. 21 (2) Any of the following material that exploits, is 22 devoted to, or principally consists of descriptions of 23 actual, simulated, or animated displays or depictions of SB2590- 2 -LRB103 34076 SPS 63893 b 1 any of the following, in a manner patently offensive with 2 respect to minors: 3 (A) Pubic hair, anus, vulva, genitals, or a female 4 nipple. 5 (B) Touching, caressing, or fondling of nipples or 6 breasts of females, buttocks, anuses, or genitals. 7 (C) Sexual intercourse, masturbation, sodomy, 8 bestiality, oral copulation, flagellation, excretory 9 functions, exhibitions, or any other sexual act. 10 (3) Material, taken as a whole, that lacks serious 11 literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for 12 minors. 13 "Minor" means any person under the age of 18. 14 "News-gathering organization" means any of the following: 15 (A) An employee of a newspaper, news publication, 16 or news source, printed or on an online or mobile 17 platform, of current news and public interest, while 18 operating as an employee as provided in this 19 paragraph, who can provide documentation of employment 20 with the newspaper, news publication, or news source. 21 (B) A radio broadcast station, television 22 broadcast station, cable television operator, wire 23 service, or an employee of a station, operator, or 24 service. 25 "Publish" means to communicate or make information 26available to another person or entity on a publicly available SB2590- 3 -LRB103 34076 SPS 63893 b 1website. 2 "Reasonable age verification methods" means verifying that 3a person seeking to access the material is 18 years of age or 4older by requiring the person attempting to access the 5material to comply with a commercial age verification system 6that verifies in any of the following ways: 7 (1) Government-issued identification. 8 (2) Any commercially reasonable method that relies on 9 public or private transactional data to verify that the 10 person attempting to access the information is at least 18 11 years of age or older. 12 "Substantial portion" means more than 33 1/3% of total 13material on a website is material harmful to minors. 14 "Transactional data" means a sequence of information that 15documents an exchange, agreement, or transfer between an 16individual, commercial entity, or third party used for the 17purpose of satisfying a request or event. "Transactional data" 18includes, but is not limited to, records from mortgage, 19education, and employment entities. 20 Section 10. Publishing or distributing material harmful to 21minors; age verification. 22 (a) Any commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally 23publishes or distributes a substantial portion of material 24harmful to minors on a website is subject to civil penalties as 25provided in this Act if the entity fails to perform reasonable SB2590- 4 -LRB103 34076 SPS 63893 b 1age verification methods to verify the age of an individual 2attempting to access the material harmful to minors. 3 (b) The Attorney General may investigate an alleged 4violation of this Act and initiate a civil action for an 5injunction and to assess civil penalties. Prior to initiating 6a civil action, the Attorney General shall provide the 7commercial entity with not less than 30 days to comply with 8this Section. 9 Section 15. Penalties. 10 (a) If a court finds that a commercial entity violated 11this Act, the court may assess a civil penalty in an amount of 12not more than $5,000 for each day of violation. The Attorney 13General must deposit the civil penalty into the Cyber 14Exploitation of Children Fund, a special fund that is created 15in the State treasury, and, subject to funding from civil 16penalties or appropriation and as directed by the Secretary of 17State, shall be expended for the investigation of cybercrimes 18involving the exploitation of children and for no other 19purpose. In addition to the remedies provided in this Section, 20the Attorney General may request and the court may impose an 21additional civil penalty not to exceed $10,000 for each 22violation of this Act against any commercial entity found by 23the court to have knowingly failed to perform reasonable age 24verification methods to verify the age of individuals 25attempting to access the material. The additional civil SB2590- 5 -LRB103 34076 SPS 63893 b 1penalty shall also be deposited into the Cyber Exploitation of 2Children Fund. 3 (b) Each violation may be treated as a separate violation 4or may be combined into one violation at the option of the 5Attorney General. 6 (c) If a court finds that a commercial entity violated 7this Act, the court may assess against the commercial entity 8all costs, expenses, and fees related to investigations and 9proceedings associated with the violation, including 10attorney's fees. 11 Section 20. Exceptions. 12 (a) This Act does not apply to any bona fide news or public 13interest broadcast, website, video, report, or event and shall 14not be construed to affect the rights of any news-gathering 15organization. 16 (b) No Internet service provider, or its affiliates or 17subsidiaries, search engine, or cloud service provider shall 18be held to have violated the provisions of this Act solely for 19providing access or connection to or from a website or other 20information or content on the Internet or a facility, system, 21or network not under the control of that provider, including 22transmission, downloading, intermediate storage, access 23software, or other related capabilities, to the extent the 24provider is not responsible for the creation of the content of 25the communication that constitutes material harmful to minors. SB2590- 6 -LRB103 34076 SPS 63893 b 1 Section 99. The State Finance Act is amended by adding 2Section 5.990 as follows: 3 (30 ILCS 105/5.990 new) 4 Sec. 5.990. The Cyber Exploitation of Children Fund.