HOUSE BILL NO. 4429
A bill to regulate mature content provided on websites, applications, and online services; to regulate covered manufacturers; to provide for the powers and duties of certain state and local governmental officers and entities; to provide for the promulgation of rules; and to provide remedies.
the people of the state of michigan enact:
Sec. 1. This act may be cited as the "digital age assurance act".
(a) "Application programming interface" means a set of rules that allows programmers to develop a software for a particular operating system without having to be completely familiar with that operating system.
(b) "Application store" means a publicly available website, application, or online service that distributes third-party platforms' software applications to a computer, mobile device, or any other general purpose computing device.
(c) "Covered manufacturer" means a manufacturer of a device, an operating system for a device, or an application store.
(d) "Department" means the department of the attorney general.
(e) "Device" means a digital equipment or a portion of a digital equipment that is designed for and capable of communicating across a computer network with other digital equipment for the purpose of transmitting, receiving, or storing data. Device includes, but not limited to, a desktop, laptop, cellular telephone, tablet, or other digital equipment designed for and capable of communicating with or across a computer network and that is used for that purpose.
(f) "Mature content" means sexually explicit content as that term is defined in 18 USC 2256.
(g) "Minor" means an individual who is less than 18 years of age.
(h) "Substantial portion" means that more than 33.33% of the total material on a website, application, or online service is mature content.
Sec. 5. (1) A covered manufacturer shall take commercially reasonable and technically feasible steps to do all of the following:
(a) On activation of a device, determine or estimate the age of the device's user or users.
(b) Using an application programming interface, provide an application store, website, application, and online service with a digital signal regarding the age of the device's user or users, specifically whether the user is any of the following:
(i) Less than 13 years of age.
(ii) 13 years of age or older but less than 16 years of age.
(iii) 16 years of age or older but less than 18 years of age.
(iv) 18 years of age or older.
(c) If the covered manufacturer is an application store and a user who is less than 16 years of age is seeking to download an application from the application store, do both of the following:
(i) Obtain consent from a parent or guardian of the user before permitting that user to download an application from the application store.
(ii) Provide a parent or guardian of the user with the option to connect with the developer of the application for the purpose of facilitating parental supervision tools.
(2) For a device sold before the effective date of this act, a covered manufacturer shall ensure that the requirements under subsection (1) are included by default in any version or update to the device's operating system and application store that occurs after the effective date of this act.
Sec. 7. (1) A website, application, or online service that makes mature content available must do all of the following:
(a) Recognize and allow the receipt of a digital age signal from a covered manufacturer.
(b) If the website, application, or online service knowingly makes available a substantial portion of mature content, block access to the website, application, or online service if a digital age signal is received under section 5(1) that indicates an individual is not 18 years of age or older.
(c) If the website, application, or online service knowingly makes available less than a substantial portion of mature content, do both of the following:
(i) Block access to known mature content if a digital age signal is received under section 5(1) that indicates an individual is not 18 years of age or older.
(ii) Provide a disclaimer to a user or visitor before displaying known mature content.
(2) If a website, application, or online service has actual knowledge that a user is less than 18 years of age from a digital age signal received under section 5(1), the website, application, or online service must, to the extent applicable and technically feasible, provide readily available features for a parent or guardian to support a minor with using the website, application, or online service, including features that do all of the following:
(a) Help manage which individuals or accounts are affirmatively linked to the minor.
(b) Help manage the delivery of age-appropriate content.
(c) Limit the amount of time that the minor spends daily on the website, application, or online service.
Sec. 9. A covered manufacturer shall comply with this act in a nondiscriminatory manner including, but not limited to, by doing both of the following:
(a) Imposing at least the same restrictions and obligations on the covered manufacturer's own website, application, or online service as the restrictions and obligations the covered manufacturer imposes on a third party.
(b) Not using data collected from a third party, or consent mechanisms deployed for a third party, to do any of the following:
(i) Compete against that third party.
(ii) Give the covered manufacturer's services preference relative to those of a third party.
(iii) Act in an anticompetitive manner.
Sec. 11 The department may promulgate rules under the administrative procedures act of 1969, 1969 PA 306, MCL 24.201 to 24.328, to establish the processes covered manufacturers must use to comply with this act.
Sec. 13. (1) The department has exclusive authority to enforce this act. There is no private right of action under this act.
(2) Before initiating a civil action, the department shall provide an entity alleged with violating this act with 45 days' written notice identifying the specific provisions of this act the department alleges the entity is violating. If within 45 days after receiving the written notice the entity cures the noticed violation and provides the department with an express written statement that the alleged violations have been cured, the department shall not initiate a civil action.
(3) If an entity continues to violate this act in breach of an express written statement provided to the department under subsection (2) or fails to provide an express written statement under (2), the department may initiate a civil action seeking damages of not more than $10,000.00 per violation. Damages under this subsection begin accruing after the completion of the 45 day period to cure under subsection (2).
(4) A covered manufacturer is not liable for failure to comply with this act if the covered manufacturer has taken commercially reasonable and technically feasible steps to determine or estimate the age of the user of the device as provided in section 5(1).