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HB0078 • 2024

Pornography and obscenity-crimes and penalties.

AN ACT relating to crimes and offenses; specifying penalties for promoting obscenity on an internet website; requiring a person who publishes material harmful to minors to an internet website to require age verification to access the website; prohibiting a person from retaining identifying information related to age verification; requiring the attorney general to provide for reporting of violations; providing penalties; and providing for an effective date.

Children Crime
Did Not Pass

The latest official action shows that this bill did not move forward in that session.

Sponsor
Representative Penn
Last action
2024-02-16
Official status
inactive
Effective date
3/1/2024

Plain English Breakdown

The bill did not pass in the session it was introduced.

Rules for Internet Websites with Obscene or Harmful Material

The bill sets penalties for promoting obscene material on internet websites accessible in Wyoming and requires age verification to prevent minors from accessing harmful content.

What This Bill Does

  • Makes it a crime to promote obscene material on an internet website accessible in Wyoming, with fines of up to $1,000 per day the material is available.
  • Increases penalties if the obscene material is accessed by minors, with fines of up to $6,000 for each time a minor sees the content and additional daily fines while it remains online.
  • Requires website owners who publish harmful material intended for adults to use age verification methods to prevent minors from accessing it.
  • Prohibits website owners or third parties involved in age verification processes from keeping personal information of users after verifying their age.

Who It Names or Affects

  • People who publish obscene material on internet websites accessible in Wyoming
  • Website owners who publish harmful content intended for adults
  • Third parties involved in age verification processes

Terms To Know

Obscene
Material which the average person would find, applying contemporary community standards, depicts or describes sexual conduct in a patently offensive way.
Harmful to minors
Visual depictions of nudity, sex, or excretion that appeal to a minor's prurient interest and are patently offensive with respect to what is suitable for minors.

Limits and Unknowns

  • The bill did not pass in the session it was introduced.
  • It does not specify how age verification methods should be implemented or enforced.
  • The effectiveness of the reporting mechanism set up by the Attorney General is uncertain without further details on implementation.

Bill History

  1. 2024-02-16 House

    H Did not Consider for Introduction

  2. 2024-01-24 House

    H Received for Introduction

  3. 2024-01-22 LSO

    Bill Number Assigned

Current Bill Text

Read the full stored bill text 
24LSO-0351
2024
STATE OF WYOMING
24LSO-0351
Numbered
2.0

HOUSE BILL NO. HB0078

Pornography and obscenity-crimes and penalties.

Sponsored by: Representative(s) Penn, Angelos, Haroldson, Hornok, Knapp, Neiman, Rodriguez-Williams, Strock, Styvar, Trujillo and Ward and Senator(s) Hutchings and Laursen, D

A BILL

for

AN ACT relating to crimes and offenses; specifying penalties for promoting obscenity on an internet website; requiring a person who publishes material harmful to minors to an internet website to require age verification to access the website; prohibiting a person from retaining identifying information related to age verification; requiring the attorney general to provide for reporting of violations; providing penalties; and providing for an effective date.

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:

Section 1.

W.S. 6
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4
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301(a)(iii)(B) and 6
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4
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302(b)(i), (ii) and by creating new subsections (d) through (g) are amended to read:

6
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4
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301.

Definitions.

(a)

As used in this article:

(iii)

"Obscene" is material which the average person would find:

(B)

Applying contemporary community standards, depicts or describes sexual conduct in a patently offensive way
including, without limitation, visual depictions of rape or sexual abuse
; and

6
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4
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302.

Promoting obscenity; material harmful to minors; enforcement; penalties.

(b)

Promoting obscenity is a misdemeanor punishable upon conviction as follows:

(i)

If to an adult, by a fine not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000.00) or by imprisonment for not to exceed one (1) year, or both
. If the obscene material is published on an internet website accessible in Wyoming, the fine under this paragraph shall be not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000.00) for each day the obscene material is accessible on the internet website
;

(ii)

If to a minor, for each violation, by a fine not to exceed six thousand dollars ($6,000.00) or by imprisonment for not to exceed one (1) year, or both.
If the obscene material is published on an internet website accessible in Wyoming, the fine under this paragraph shall be not more than six thousand dollars ($6,000.00) for each day the material is actually accessed by a minor and not more than an additional one thousand dollars ($1,000.00) per day for each additional day the obscene material is accessible on the internet website.

(d)

A person who publishes material harmful to minors on an internet website where more than one
‑
third (1/3) of the content on the internet website is material harmful to minors shall be guilty of providing access to material harmful to minors unless the person uses reasonable age verification methods to verify the age of persons attempting to access the material and prevent minors from accessing the material. As used in this subsection:

(i)

"Material harmful to minors" means any material consisting of visual depictions of nudity, sex or excretion that:

(A)

Appeals to the prurient interest of minors;

(B)

Applying community standards, is patently offensive with respect to what is suitable for minors; and

(C)

Lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for minors.

(ii)

"Reasonable age verification" means an age verification system that verifies age using:

(A)

Government issued identification; or

(B)

A method that reasonably relies on public or private transactional data to verify the age of the person.

(e)

A violation of subsection (d) of this section shall be a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000.00) per day for each day that material harmful to minors is accessible to minors on the internet website.

(f)

No person shall retain any personally identifying information following any age verification completed under subsection (d) of this section. A violation of this subsection, including any violation by a third party used as part of the age verification process, shall be a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000.00).

(g)

The Wyoming attorney general shall provide a mechanism for a person to report potential violations of this section to the attorney general's office. The Wyoming attorney general may report potential violations of federal law to the child exploitation and obscenity section of the United States department of justice.

Section 2
.

This act is effective July 1, 2024
.

(END)

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HB0078