Parents' Empowerment Act - Authorizes a minor, through a person acting on his or her behalf under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, to bring a civil action in U.S. district court for compensatory and punitive damages for the knowing sale or distribution in interstate or foreign commerce of an entertainment product containing material harmful to minors, if: (1) a reasonable person would expect a substantial number of minors to be exposed to the material; and (2) the minor as a result of such exposure is likely to suffer personal or emotional injury or injury to mental or moral welfare.
Makes it an affirmative defense to such an action that: (1) a parent or guardian of the minor owned or possessed the entertainment product containing the material to which the minor was exposed; and (2) an act of that parent or guardian was the proximate cause of the minor’s exposure.
[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6390 Introduced in House (IH)]
109th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 6390
To provide a civil action for a minor injured by exposure to an
entertainment product containing material that is harmful to minors,
and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
December 6, 2006
Mr. Hunter introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To provide a civil action for a minor injured by exposure to an
entertainment product containing material that is harmful to minors,
and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Parents' Empowerment Act''.
SEC. 2. CIVIL ACTION FOR A MINOR INJURED BY EXPOSURE TO AN
ENTERTAINMENT PRODUCT CONTAINING MATERIAL THAT IS HARMFUL
TO MINORS.
(a) Civil Action.--A minor, through a person acting on behalf of
the minor in accordance with Rule 17(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil
Procedure to the extent applicable, may, in a civil action in an
appropriate district court of the United States, obtain relief under
subsection (b) against any person who knowingly sells or distributes in
interstate or foreign commerce an entertainment product containing
material that is harmful to minors, if--
(1) a reasonable person would expect a substantial number
of minors to be exposed to the material; and
(2) the minor as a result of exposure to that material is
likely to suffer personal or emotional injury or injury to
mental or moral welfare.
(b) Relief.--In an action under subsection (a), if the minor is the
prevailing party--
(1) the minor shall recover compensatory damages of not
less than $10,000 for each instance of any such material in any
such product to which such minor was so exposed;
(2) the minor may recover punitive damages;
(3) the court, in its discretion, may allow the minor a
reasonable attorney's fee (including expert fees) as part of
the costs; and
(4) the court may order any other appropriate relief.
(c) Affirmative Defense.--It is an affirmative defense to an action
under this section that a parent or guardian of the minor owned or
possessed the entertainment product containing the material to which
the minor was exposed, and an act of that parent or guardian was the
proximate cause of the minor's exposure to that material.
(d) Definitions.--For purposes of this section:
(1) The term ``entertainment product'' means a picture,
photograph, image, graphic image file, drawing, video game,
motion picture film, or similar visual representation or image,
book, pamphlet, magazine, printed matter, or sound recording.
(2) The term ``material that is harmful to minors'' means
any pornographic communication, picture, image, graphic image
file, article, recording, writing, or other pornographic matter
of any kind that is obscene or that--
(A) the average person, applying the contemporary
standards of the adult community in which the minor
resides with respect to what is suitable for minors,
would find, taking the material as a whole and with
respect to minors of the ages that the person
reasonably would expect to be exposed to the material--
(i) is designed to appeal to, or is
designed to pander to, the prurient interest in
nudity, sex, or excretion, with respect to
minors; and
(ii) depicts, describes, or represents, in
a manner patently offensive with respect to
minors, an actual or simulated sexual act or
sexual contact, an actual or simulated normal
or perverted sexual act, or a lewd exhibition
of the genitals or post-pubescent female
breast; and
(B) a reasonable person would find, taken as a
whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, and
scientific value for minors sufficient to overcome the
pernicious effect of that material.
(3) The term ``minor'' means an individual under the age of
18.
(e) Severability.--If any provision of this section or any
application of such provision to any person or circumstance is held to
be unconstitutional, the remainder of this section and the application
of the provision to any other person or circumstance shall not be
affected.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
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