The U.S. Senate has passed a bill that would impose additional obligations to online service providers to report material related to the sexual abuse of children. The REPORT Act would:
- Expand reporting obligations within 180 days of the bill’s enactment to include planned or imminent abuse, as well as sex trafficking, coercion or enticement of a minor to engage in prostitution or any other illegal sexual activity.
- Extend preservation requirements from 90 days to one year.
- Increase fines for knowing, willful failure to submit reports.
- Fines would increase from $600,000 to $850,000 on the first offense.
- They would increase from $850,000 to $1 million on the second.
The bill would amend a federal law (18 USC § 2258A) requiring interactive service providers [1] to report child sexual abuse material (also referred to as CSAM) to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s CyberTipline once a provider knows about the material.
The Senate unanimously passed the bill in late 2023. The measure now goes to the House of Representatives.
Given the bipartisan support for the bill, any affected online service providers should be prepared to adjust their reporting processes and preservation mechanisms
Orrick is tracking this and other proposed legislation related to children’s online safety and will report developments as they occur.
[1] Under 18 USC § 2258E(6), a “provider” within the scope of these CSAM reporting requirements is defined as any electronic communication service or remote computing service. An “electronic communication service” means any service which provides to users thereof the ability to send or receive wire or electronic communications (18 USC § 2510(15)); a “remote computing service” means the provision to the public of computer storage or processing services by means of an electronic communications system (18 USC § 2711(2)).
