The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the REPORT Act (S.474), which would impose additional obligations on online service providers to report material related to the sexual abuse of children. The bill now heads to President Biden’s desk to be signed into law.
At the end of 2023, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the REPORT Act. It would:
- Expand reporting obligations 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 $150,000 to between $600,000 and $850,000 on the first offense.
- They would increase from $300,000 to between $850,000 and $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.
Affected online service providers should prepare to adjust their reporting processes and preservation mechanisms.
Orrick is tracking proposed legislation related to children’s online safety and will report developments. See also:
This article was originally published Jan. 26, 2024. It was updated May 6, 2024.
[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)).
