SB 113-36: Save the Children Act (Veto Sustained)

[Mr. Reactionary]

SAVE THE CHILDREN ACT

1. As used in this act, lawful obscenity means any fully or partially obscene material, obscene performance, or material or performance which is obscene as to minors, as defined by Atlasian and Regional law, where applicable, which is protected by the Atlasian Constitution.

2. It shall be unlawful for any person, including but not limited to entities to publish or broadcast any lawful obscenity over the internet, unless the root domain identifier of the website hosting the lawful obscenity terminates with .xxx. ICANN shall reserve the terminating root domain identifier .xxx for websites hosting lawful obscenity.

3. It shall be unlawful for any person to publish or broadcast any lawful obscenity over the internet, unless such person verifies the age of any person seeking to view or access the lawful obscenity prior to such lawful obscenity being viewable by such person. Verification must include the submission by any person seeking to view or access the lawful obscenity of the identification or customer number of a valid government-issued ID that includes such person's age or the identification or customer number of a valid credit card or debit card that includes such person's age.

4. No person verifying the age of a person seeking to view or access lawful obscenity pursuant to this act shall retain any record or information identifying the name of such other person beyond thirty (30) days. Any such record or information may only be shared prior to disposition with law enforcement pursuant to a valid warrant.

5. It shall be unlawful for any person to ship or mail any lawful obscenity through the Atlasian Postal Service, or through any interstate parcel transportation or parcel delivery service operating in interstate commerce unless such lawful obscenity is concealed from public view.

6. Any computer, smart phone, tablet, or similar device that can access the internet and is owned, leased, or funded by the federal government, including but not limited to work devices, devices provided to members of the military, devices accessible to prisoners, and devices provided to colleges, schools, libraries, and museums shall be required to contain software that automatically blocks websites with a root domain address terminating with .xxx. This provision shall not apply to devices used by the Department of Justice pursuant to an investigation.

7. Any computer, smart phone, tablet, or similar device that can access the internet and is owned or leased by a contractor of the federal government for the purpose of fulfilling a federal contract, including but not limited to contractors under the Stopping Sino-Espionage Act, shall be required to contain software that automatically blocks websites with a root domain address terminating with .xxx.

8. No federal funds may be expended for the purpose of or in furtherance of the sale, distribution, conducting, broadcasting, or displaying of lawful obscenity, including but not limited to in any military exchange, prison store, college, school, library, or museum.

9. No public correctional facility, college, school, library, or museum that receives federal funds shall sell, distribute, conduct, broadcast, or display lawful obscenity unless minors are prohibited from viewing or accessing such lawful obscenity. Verification must include the presentation by any person seeking to view or access the lawful obscenity of a valid government-issued ID that includes such person's age thereon.

10. A violation of this act shall be a misdemeanor punishable by disgorgement of any profits, imprisonment for no more than 4 years, and a fine of $40,000 per violation. Any record or information collected, retained, or disclosed in violation of this act shall be subject to forfeiture and disposition.

11. A person whose privacy was unlawfully violated pursuant to this act may maintain a civil action to recover actual damages, punitive damages of up to $10,000, reasonable legal costs, and any equitable relief necessary to enforce this act.

12. This act shall take effect 30 days after the date of passage.

Sponsor: Muaddib
Debate on this bill is now open.

[Mr. Reactionary]

This bill would require porn hosting websites to have a web address ending in .xxx to make sure child filters work as intended and requires identity verification along with privacy protections for porn sites to protect kids from seeing it. Nothing would be banned, just age restricted.

[Pyro]

I'm not certain why y'all have been obsessed with this puritanical, nanny-state stuff lately, but here we go again.

To first cover the obvious, federal obscenity laws already exist and have existed for decades. It is already illegal to distribute, transport, sell, ship, etc. obscene material to minors. Existing law going back to the mid-90s also already prohibits individuals from communicating to minors any obscene material via the internet or any computer services.

The crux of this bill appears to be Sections 1-3, introducing a mandate that any obscene material be hidden with a triple-x domain and restricted unless the user provides ID. One issue, right off the bat, is that access to this "lawful obscenity" is immediately walled off for anyone who does not own a government-issued ID or credit card. Another problem is privacy. Even if we are to accept the notion that users must now submit their government ID to access half of the internet, website hosts from across the country (and the world, unless "obscene" sites based in non-Atlasian territories are just flat-out banned) now have free reign to collect personal data from users. Even if the information is set to be deleted after 30 days per Section 4 (how is this enforced, at all?), the damage would be done.

It is also significant that this legislation does not define "obscenity". It neglects to tie this language specifically to the Miller test, or any other metric to determine obscenity. At the very least it should narrow its scope down to something like 'representations of sexual acts lacking any serious artistic or educational value.' As-is, however, this opens the door for some nebulous federal agency to freely determine, with no restrictions or parameters, that this-or-that content is banned over the internet. What is in place to prevent the banning of controversial books or historical works by this metric? Are resources for LGBT teens considered "obscene"? If a user on a social media platform posts a photo of the Venus of Milo statue, is that website now restricted as well? Who knows?

Just to summarize, in the event this legislation does pass, we can safety assume all Atlasian-based websites that show material of some sort will be blocked with a .xxx domain name and thereby restricted to ID-owning Atlasian citizens who will likely have their identities stolen. Meanwhile, this nebulous content that can range anywhere from nude art to Grapes of Wrath is removed from museums, libraries, and colleges (per Section 9, where students would be over 18 anyway).

I would urge the Senate consider how this will be interpreted if passed.
And by the way, it's always a red-flag when a law claims to "Save the Children."

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Internet protection to nudity tho is not strict enough. It's too easy to access nudity for a minor, and i don't think it is a good idea if it is widely available on the internet, through agressive advertising or whatever. It needs to be enforced more strictly.

One issue, right off the bat, is that access to this "lawful obscenity" is immediately walled off for anyone who does not own a government-issued ID or credit card. Another problem is privacy. Even if we are to accept the notion that users must now submit their government ID to access half of the internet, website hosts from across the country (and the world, unless "obscene" sites based in non-Atlasian territories are just flat-out banned) now have free reign to collect personal data from users. Even if the information is set to be deleted after 30 days per Section 4 (how is this enforced, at all?), the damage would be done.

Why is this a bad thing?

Secondly, with or without this bill, privacy on the internet is a myth. Seems like a pretty naive comment to you. If you have nothing to hide, there's nothing to worry about.

[Mr. Reactionary]

Dont all of the Regions offer free ID Cards? The South has since early 2018. If an ID can be obtained for free, the data is protected, and you already have to show it to buy porn in person (or booze, smokes, and guns) this seems tame. The .xxx domain particularly seems minimally intrusive and only us a mechanism to ensure child filters work.

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

not 100% opposed to the .xxx part for out-and-out porn sites but idk about this. It's far too broad. And the ID stuff is a very bad idea to me.

[Mr. Reactionary]

Is there an amendment?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I would be interested in seeing an amendment, but I will point out the ID portions I am fine with, so I would recommend perhaps tackling them in separate amendments if so.

[Mr. Reactionary]

What amendments were wanted? I can help with clearer direction.

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

SAVE THE CHILDREN ACT

1. As used in this act, lawful obscenity means any fully or partially obscene material, obscene performance, or material or performance which is obscene as to minors, as defined by Atlasian and Regional law, where applicable, which is protected by the Atlasian Constitution. overtly pornographic content that lacks any serious artistic or educational value.

2. It shall be unlawful for any person, including but not limited to entities to primarily publish or broadcast any lawful obscenity over the internet, unless the root domain identifier of the website hosting the lawful obscenity terminates with .xxx. ICANN shall reserve the terminating root domain identifier .xxx for websites hosting lawful obscenity.

3. It shall be unlawful for any person to publish or broadcast any lawful obscenity over the internet, unless such person verifies the age of any person seeking to view or access the lawful obscenity prior to such lawful obscenity being viewable by such person. Verification must include the submission by any person seeking to view or access the lawful obscenity of the identification or customer number of a valid government-issued ID that includes such person's age or the identification or customer number of a valid credit card or debit card that includes such person's age.

3. Owners of said websites may apply to the Atlasian government for reimbursement of costs relating to the domain change through an online form. $10,000,000 will be allocated to a fund to this end.

4. No person verifying the age of a person seeking to view or access lawful obscenity pursuant to this act shall retain any record or information identifying the name of such other person beyond thirty (30) days. Any such record or information may only be shared prior to disposition with law enforcement pursuant to a valid warrant.

5. It shall be unlawful for any person to ship or mail any lawful obscenity through the Atlasian Postal Service, or through any interstate parcel transportation or parcel delivery service operating in interstate commerce unless such lawful obscenity is concealed from public view.

6. Any computer, smart phone, tablet, or similar device that can access the internet and is owned, leased, or funded by the federal government, including but not limited to work devices, devices provided to members of the military, devices accessible to prisoners, and devices provided to colleges, schools, libraries, and museums shall be required to contain software that automatically blocks websites with a root domain address terminating with .xxx. This provision shall not apply to devices used by the Department of Justice pursuant to an investigation.

7. Any computer, smart phone, tablet, or similar device that can access the internet and is owned or leased by a contractor of the federal government for the purpose of fulfilling a federal contract, including but not limited to contractors under the Stopping Sino-Espionage Act, shall be required to contain software that automatically blocks websites with a root domain address terminating with .xxx.

8. No federal funds may be expended for the purpose of or in furtherance of the sale, distribution, conducting, broadcasting, or displaying of lawful obscenity, including but not limited to in any military exchange, prison store, college, school, library, or museum.

9. No public correctional facility, college, school, library, or museum that receives federal funds shall sell, distribute, conduct, broadcast, or display lawful obscenity unless minors are prohibited from viewing or accessing such lawful obscenity. Verification must include the presentation by any person seeking to view or access the lawful obscenity of a valid government-issued ID that includes such person's age thereon.

10. A violation of this act shall be a misdemeanor punishable by disgorgement of any profits, imprisonment for no more than 4 years, and a fine of $40,000 per violation. Any record or information collected, retained, or disclosed in violation of this act shall be subject to forfeiture and disposition.

11. A person whose privacy was unlawfully violated pursuant to this act may maintain a civil action to recover actual damages, punitive damages of up to $10,000, reasonable legal costs, and any equitable relief necessary to enforce this act.

12. This act shall take effect 30 days after the date of passage.

This keeps the scope to just overtly pornographic content, while also getting rid of the ID system (which is disliked for good reason when proposed irl) and making sure that sites like Twitter don't have to switch to being "twitter.xxx" because someone posted something pornographic there.

[Mr. Reactionary]

24 hours to object.

[Mr. Reactionary]

Amendment is adopted.

[Mr. Reactionary]

Proposed amendment. 24 hours to object.

3. Owners of said websites may apply to the Atlasian government for reimbursement of costs relating to the domain change through an online form. $10,000,000 will be allocated to a fund to this end. This amount shall be funded by a one-time surtax of 1% on any income resulting from the manufacture, distribution, participation in, or sale of lawful obscenity in tax year 2023.

[Mr. Reactionary]

Amendment is adopted.

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

SAVE THE CHILDREN ACT

1. As used in this act, lawful obscenity means any overtly pornographic content that lacks any serious artistic or educational value.

2. It shall be unlawful for any person, including but not limited to entities who is owner of a website, or entities running such websites, to primarily publish or broadcast any lawful obscenity over the internet, unless the root domain identifier of the website hosting the lawful obscenity terminates with .xxx. ICANN shall reserve the terminating root domain identifier .xxx for websites hosting lawful obscenity.

3. Owners of said websites may apply to the Atlasian government for reimbursement of costs relating to the domain change through an online form. $10,000,000 will be allocated to a fund to this end. This amount shall be funded by a one-time surtax of 1% on any income resulting from the manufacture, distribution, participation in, or sale of lawful obscenity in tax year 2023.

4. No person verifying the age of a person seeking to view or access lawful obscenity pursuant to this act shall retain any record or information identifying the name of such other person beyond thirty (30) days. Any such record or information may only be shared prior to disposition with law enforcement pursuant to a valid warrant.

5. It shall be unlawful for any person to ship or mail any lawful obscenity through the Atlasian Postal Service, or through any interstate parcel transportation or parcel delivery service operating in interstate commerce unless such lawful obscenity is concealed from public view.

6. Any computer, smart phone, tablet, or similar device that can access the internet and is owned, leased, or funded by the federal government, including but not limited to work devices, devices provided to members of the military, devices accessible to prisoners, and devices provided to colleges, schools, libraries, and museums shall be required to contain software that automatically blocks websites with a root domain address terminating with .xxx. This provision shall not apply to devices used by the Department of Justice pursuant to an investigation.

7. Any computer, smart phone, tablet, or similar device that can access the internet and is owned or leased by a contractor of the federal government for the purpose of fulfilling a federal contract, including but not limited to contractors under the Stopping Sino-Espionage Act, shall be required to contain software that automatically blocks websites with a root domain address terminating with .xxx.

8. No federal funds may be expended for the purpose of or in furtherance of the sale, distribution, conducting, broadcasting, or displaying of lawful obscenity, including but not limited to in any military exchange, prison store, college, school, library, or museum.

9. No public correctional facility, college, school, library, or museum that receives federal funds shall sell, distribute, conduct, broadcast, or display lawful obscenity unless minors are prohibited from viewing or accessing such lawful obscenity. Verification must include the presentation by any person seeking to view or access the lawful obscenity of a valid government-issued ID that includes such person's age thereon.

10. A violation of this act shall be a misdemeanor punishable by disgorgement of any profits, imprisonment for no more than 4 years, and a fine of $40,000 per violation. Any record or information collected, retained, or disclosed in violation of this act shall be subject to forfeiture and disposition.

11. A person whose privacy was unlawfully violated pursuant to this act may maintain a civil action to recover actual damages, punitive damages of up to $10,000, reasonable legal costs, and any equitable relief necessary to enforce this act.

12. This act shall take effect 30 days after the date of passage.

This keeps the burden on the people running the websites, which I think was the intention, but I wanted to make it more clear.

[Mr. Reactionary]

24 hours to object.

[Mr. Reactionary]

Amendment adopted. I move for a final vote. 24 hrs to object.

[Mr. Reactionary]

A final vote is now open until Wednesday noon eastern. Please vote Aye, Nay, or Abstain.

SAVE THE CHILDREN ACT

1. As used in this act, lawful obscenity means any overtly pornographic content that lacks any serious artistic or educational value.

2. It shall be unlawful for any person who is owner of a website, or entities running such websites, to primarily publish or broadcast any lawful obscenity over the internet, unless the root domain identifier of the website hosting the lawful obscenity terminates with .xxx. ICANN shall reserve the terminating root domain identifier .xxx for websites hosting lawful obscenity.

3. Owners of said websites may apply to the Atlasian government for reimbursement of costs relating to the domain change through an online form. $10,000,000 will be allocated to a fund to this end. This amount shall be funded by a one-time surtax of 1% on any income resulting from the manufacture, distribution, participation in, or sale of lawful obscenity in tax year 2023.

4. No person verifying the age of a person seeking to view or access lawful obscenity pursuant to this act shall retain any record or information identifying the name of such other person beyond thirty (30) days. Any such record or information may only be shared prior to disposition with law enforcement pursuant to a valid warrant.

5. It shall be unlawful for any person to ship or mail any lawful obscenity through the Atlasian Postal Service, or through any interstate parcel transportation or parcel delivery service operating in interstate commerce unless such lawful obscenity is concealed from public view.

6. Any computer, smart phone, tablet, or similar device that can access the internet and is owned, leased, or funded by the federal government, including but not limited to work devices, devices provided to members of the military, devices accessible to prisoners, and devices provided to colleges, schools, libraries, and museums shall be required to contain software that automatically blocks websites with a root domain address terminating with .xxx. This provision shall not apply to devices used by the Department of Justice pursuant to an investigation.

7. Any computer, smart phone, tablet, or similar device that can access the internet and is owned or leased by a contractor of the federal government for the purpose of fulfilling a federal contract, including but not limited to contractors under the Stopping Sino-Espionage Act, shall be required to contain software that automatically blocks websites with a root domain address terminating with .xxx.

8. No federal funds may be expended for the purpose of or in furtherance of the sale, distribution, conducting, broadcasting, or displaying of lawful obscenity, including but not limited to in any military exchange, prison store, college, school, library, or museum.

9. No public correctional facility, college, school, library, or museum that receives federal funds shall sell, distribute, conduct, broadcast, or display lawful obscenity unless minors are prohibited from viewing or accessing such lawful obscenity. Verification must include the presentation by any person seeking to view or access the lawful obscenity of a valid government-issued ID that includes such person's age thereon.

10. A violation of this act shall be a misdemeanor punishable by disgorgement of any profits, imprisonment for no more than 4 years, and a fine of $40,000 per violation. Any record or information collected, retained, or disclosed in violation of this act shall be subject to forfeiture and disposition.

11. A person whose privacy was unlawfully violated pursuant to this act may maintain a civil action to recover actual damages, punitive damages of up to $10,000, reasonable legal costs, and any equitable relief necessary to enforce this act.

12. This act shall take effect 30 days after the date of passage.

[West_Midlander]

Present

[Enduro]

Abstain, I agree with idea of a .xxx domain, but I'm certain it could blow up disastrously if government is primarily involved.

[At-Large Senator LouisvilleThunder]

Aye

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

Abstain

[fhtagn]

Aye

[Liminal Trans Girl]

Abstain

[Utah Neolib]

Abstain