Florida Senate - 2025 COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
Bill No. CS for SB 868
Ì274324ÊÎ274324
LEGISLATIVE ACTION
Senate . House
Comm: WD .
04/02/2025 .
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The Committee on Judiciary (Ingoglia) recommended the following:
1 Senate Amendment (with title amendment)
2
3 Between lines 117 and 118
4 insert:
5 Section 2. Subsections (1), (2), and (3), paragraphs (a)
6 and (b) of subsection (5), and subsection (6) of section
7 501.1737, Florida Statutes, are amended to read:
8 501.1737 Age verification for online access to materials
9 harmful to minors.—
10 (1) As used in this section and s. 501.1741, the term:
11 (a) “Anonymous age verification” has the same meaning as in
12 s. 501.1738.
13 (b) “Application store” means a publicly available website,
14 software application, or online service that distributes third
15 party platforms’ software applications to a computer, a mobile
16 device, or any other general-purpose computing device.
17 (c)(b) “Commercial entity” includes a corporation, a
18 limited liability company, a partnership, a limited partnership,
19 a sole proprietorship, and any other legally recognized entity.
20 (d) “Covered manufacturer” means a manufacturer of a
21 device, an operating system for a device, or an application
22 store.
23 (e)(c) “Department” means the Department of Legal Affairs.
24 (f) “Device” means equipment or a portion of equipment that
25 is designed for and capable of communicating across a computer
26 network with other computers or devices for the purpose of
27 transmitting, receiving, or storing data, including, but not
28 limited to, a desktop, a laptop, a cellular telephone, a tablet,
29 or any other device designed for and capable of communicating
30 with or across a computer network and that is used for such
31 purpose.
32 (g) “Digital age verification” means either anonymous age
33 verification, standard age verification, or device-based age
34 verification.
35 (h)(d) “Distribute” means to issue, sell, give, provide,
36 deliver, transfer, transmit, circulate, or disseminate by any
37 means.
38 (i)(e) “Material harmful to minors” means any material
39 that:
40 1. The average person applying contemporary community
41 standards would find, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient
42 interest;
43 2. Depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way,
44 sexual conduct as specifically defined in s. 847.001(19); and
45 3. When taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic,
46 political, or scientific value for minors.
47 (j)(f) “News-gathering organization” means any of the
48 following:
49 1. A newspaper, news publication, or news source, printed
50 or published online or on a mobile platform, engaged in
51 reporting current news and matters of public interest, and an
52 employee thereof who can provide documentation of such
53 employment.
54 2. A radio broadcast station, television broadcast station,
55 cable television operator, or wire service, and an employee
56 thereof who can provide documentation of such employment.
57 (k) “Operating system provider” means an entity that
58 develops, distributes, or maintains the operating system of, and
59 provides common services for, a device. The term includes the
60 design, programming, and supply of operating systems for various
61 devices such as smartphones, tablets, and other digital
62 equipment.
63 (l)(g) “Publish” means to communicate or make information
64 available to another person or entity on a publicly available
65 website or application.
66 (m)(h) “Resident” means a person who lives in this state
67 for more than 6 months of the year.
68 (n)(i) “Standard age verification” means any commercially
69 reasonable method of age verification approved by the commercial
70 entity.
71 (o)(j) “Substantial portion” means more than 33.3 percent
72 of total material on a website or application.
73 (2) A commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally
74 publishes or distributes material harmful to minors on a website
75 or application, if the website or application contains a
76 substantial portion of material harmful to minors, must use
77 digital either anonymous age verification or standard age
78 verification to verify that the age of a person attempting to
79 access the material is 18 years of age or older and prevent
80 access to the material by a person younger than 18 years of age.
81 The commercial entity must offer anonymous age verification and
82 standard age verification, and a person attempting to access the
83 material may select which method will be used to verify his or
84 her age unless the commercial entity is relying on device-based
85 age verification pursuant to s. 501.1741.
86 (3) A commercial entity must ensure that the requirements
87 of s. 501.1738 are met unless the commercial entity is relying
88 on device-based age verification pursuant to s. 501.1741. A
89 covered manufacturer must ensure that the requirements of s.
90 501.1741 are met.
91 (5)(a) Any violation of subsection (2) or subsection (3) is
92 deemed an unfair and deceptive trade practice actionable under
93 part II of this chapter solely by the department on behalf of a
94 resident minor against a commercial entity or a covered
95 manufacturer. If the department has reason to believe that a
96 commercial entity or a covered manufacturer is in violation of
97 subsection (2) or subsection (3), the department, as the
98 enforcing authority, may bring an action against the commercial
99 entity or a covered manufacturer for an unfair or deceptive act
100 or practice. For the purpose of bringing an action pursuant to
101 this section, ss. 501.211 and 501.212 do not apply. In addition
102 to any other remedy under part II of this chapter, the
103 department may collect a civil penalty of up to $50,000 per
104 violation and reasonable attorney fees and court costs. When the
105 commercial entity’s or a covered manufacturer’s failure to
106 comply with subsection (2) or subsection (3) is a consistent
107 pattern of conduct of the commercial entity or covered
108 manufacturer, punitive damages may be assessed against the
109 commercial entity or covered manufacturer.
110 (b) A third party that performs age verification for a
111 commercial entity or covered manufacturer in violation of s.
112 501.1738 is deemed to have committed an unfair and deceptive
113 trade practice actionable under part II of this chapter solely
114 by the department against such third party. If the department
115 has reason to believe that the third party is in violation of s.
116 501.1738, the department, as the enforcing authority, may bring
117 an action against such third party for an unfair or deceptive
118 act or practice. For the purpose of bringing an action pursuant
119 to this section, ss. 501.211 and 501.212 do not apply. In
120 addition to other remedies under part II of this chapter, the
121 department may collect a civil penalty of up to $50,000 per
122 violation and reasonable attorney fees and court costs.
123 (6) For purposes of bringing an action under subsection
124 (5), a commercial entity or covered manufacturer that publishes
125 or distributes material harmful to minors on a website or
126 application, if the website or application contains a
127 substantial portion of material harmful to minors and such
128 website or application is available to be accessed in this
129 state, is considered to be both engaged in substantial and not
130 isolated activities within this state and operating, conducting,
131 engaging in, or carrying on a business and doing business in
132 this state, and is therefore subject to the jurisdiction of the
133 courts of this state.
134 Section 3. Section 501.1741, Florida Statutes, is created
135 to read:
136 501.1741 Device-based age verification.—
137 (1) Upon activation of a device, a covered manufacturer
138 must take commercially reasonable and technically feasible steps
139 to do all of the following:
140 (a) Determine or estimate the age of the user of the
141 device.
142 (b) Provide websites, applications, application stores, and
143 online services with a digital signal and a real-time
144 application programming interface to verify that a person is:
145 1. Younger than 13 years of age.
146 2. At least 13 years of age but younger than 16 years of
147 age.
148 3. At least 16 years of age but younger than 18 years of
149 age.
150 4. Eighteen years of age or older.
151 (c) If the covered manufacturer is an application store,
152 obtain parental or guardian consent before permitting a person
153 younger than 16 years of age to download an application from the
154 application store and provide the parent or guardian with the
155 option to connect the developer of the application with the
156 approving parent or guardian for the purpose of facilitating
157 parental supervision tools.
158 (d) Beginning July 1, 2026, ensure that the requirements of
159 this section are included by default in all operating systems
160 and application store versions and updates for devices sold
161 after July 1, 2026.
162 (2) A website, an application, or an online service that
163 makes available material harmful to minors must recognize and
164 allow for the receipt of digital age signals pursuant to this
165 section.
166 (3) A website, an application, or an online service that
167 makes available a substantial portion of material harmful to
168 minors must do all of the following:
169 (a) Block access to the website, application, or online
170 service if an age signal is received indicating that the person
171 using such website, application, or online service is under 18
172 years of age.
173 (b) Provide a disclaimer to the user or visitors that the
174 website, application, or online service contains material
175 harmful to minors.
176 (c) Label itself as restricted to adults.
177 (4) A website, an application, or an online service that
178 knowingly makes available less than a substantial portion of
179 material harmful to minors must do all of the following:
180 (a) Block access to known material harmful to minors if an
181 age signal is received indicating that the person using such
182 website, application, or online service is under 18 years of
183 age.
184 (b) Provide a disclaimer to users or visitors before
185 displaying known material harmful to minors.
186 (5) A website, an application, or an online service with
187 actual knowledge, through receipt of a signal regarding a user’s
188 age or otherwise, that a user is under 18 years of age must, to
189 the extent commercially reasonable and technically feasible,
190 provide readily available features for parents or guardians to
191 support a minor with respect to the minor’s use of the service,
192 including features to help manage which persons or accounts are
193 affirmatively linked to the minor, to help manage the delivery
194 of age-appropriate content, and to limit the amount of time that
195 the minor spends daily on the website, application, or online
196 service.
197 (6) A covered manufacturer must comply with this section in
198 a nondiscriminatory manner, specifically including, but not
199 limited to, imposing at least the same restrictions and
200 obligations on its own websites, applications, and online
201 services as it does on those from third parties.
202 (7) A covered manufacturer may not:
203 (a) Use data collected from third parties, or consent
204 mechanisms deployed for third parties, in the course of
205 compliance with this section to compete against such third
206 parties;
207 (b) Give the covered manufacturer’s services preference
208 relative to those of third parties; or
209 (c) Otherwise use data collected from third parties or
210 consent mechanisms deployed by third parties in an
211 anticompetitive manner.
212 (8) After requisite notice and public comment, the
213 department may adopt rules necessary to establish the processes
214 by which entities are to comply with this section.
215 (9) This section is intended to provide uniformity of the
216 law. Any state law, regulation, or policy or any ordinance,
217 regulation, or policy adopted by a county, a municipality, an
218 administrative agency, or other political subdivision of this
219 state which is in conflict with this section is hereby
220 superseded and is deemed null and void to the extent of the
221 conflict with this section.
222
223 ================= T I T L E A M E N D M E N T ================
224 And the title is amended as follows:
225 Delete lines 2 - 10
226 and insert:
227 An act relating to online access by minors; amending
228 s. 501.1736, F.S.; requiring social media platforms to
229 disable certain encryption features for a specified
230 purpose; amending s. 501.1737, F.S.; defining terms;
231 revising the age verification method used by certain
232 commercial entities to verify the age of a person
233 accessing certain material; providing an exception;
234 requiring a covered manufacturer to ensure certain
235 statutory requirements are met; authorizing the
236 Department of Legal Affairs to bring an action against
237 covered manufacturers; authorizing the imposition of
238 civil penalties against covered manufacturers;
239 conforming provisions to changes made by the act;
240 creating s. 501.1741, F.S.; requiring covered
241 manufacturers to take certain steps upon activation of
242 a device; requiring certain websites, applications, or
243 online services to take certain actions based on the
244 amount of material harmful to minors found on such
245 websites, applications, or online services; requiring
246 covered manufacturers to comply with statutory
247 requirements in a nondiscriminatory manner;
248 prohibiting covered manufacturers from taking certain
249 actions; authorizing the Department of Legal Affairs
250 to adopt rules; providing preemption;