HB2192 - 572R

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:

Section 1. Title 23, chapter 2, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended by adding article 6.2, to read:

ARTICLE 6.2. CONTENT CREATION

START_STATUTE23-345. Definitions

In this article, unless the context otherwise requires:

1. "Content creator":

(a) Means a parent or legal guardian who resides in this state and WHO creates an image or video content that is performed in this state in exchange for compensation.

(b) Includes:

(i) Vloggers.

(ii) Podcasters.

(iii) Online influencers.

(iv) Streamers.

2. Friending function does not include subscribing to content from another account holder.

3. "Minor" means a natural person who is under eighteen years of age and who resides in this state.

4. "Online hosting platform" means a public or semipublic internet-based service or application that has account holders in this state and that meets any of the following criteria:

(a) Connects account holders with other account holders, which allows the account holders to interact socially within the service or application.

(b) Allows public posting or account holder-generated content without visibility being limited to a particular social graph.

(c) Allows interaction with other account holders' content outside a limited social graph that includes content recommendations from individuals that the account holder does not follow.

5. "Social graph" means the list of individuals on an online hosting platform that an account holder is connected to by using a friending function or other similar functionality.

6. "Uniquely identifiable":

(a) Means an individual who is able to identify another individual based on personal identifying information that includes:

(i) The name.

(ii) The contact information.

(iii) An image.

(iv) A voice.

(b) Does not include the individual who submits a privacy removal request.

7. "Video content":

(a) Means content shared on an online hosting platform in exchange for compensation.

(b) Includes content that is created by a content creator. END_STATUTE

START_STATUTE23-346. Content creators; compensation to minors; reporting period; civil action

A. If a minor is included in video content at any time within a previous twelve-month period, the minor shall be compensated if all of the following criteria are met:

1. At least thirty percent of the content creator's compensated video content produced within a thirty-day period includes the likeness, name or photograph of the minor. Content percentage is measured by the percentage of time the likeness, name or photograph of the minor visually appears or is the subject of an oral narrative in the video segment as compared to the total length of the segment.

2. The number of views received per video segment on the online hosting platform satisfies the online hosting platform's threshold to generate compensation or the content creator receives actual compensation for the video content equal to or more than $.10 per view.

3. The content creator receives actual compensation for the video content of at least $15,000 in the prior twelve-month period.

B. A minor who is at least thirteen years of age may produce, create and publish their own video content and is entitled to all compensation for their own content creation.

C. A content creator who features a minor in their video content as prescribed in subsection A of this section shall maintain all of the following records until the minor reaches twenty-one years of age:

1. The name and documentary proof of the age of the minor who was featured in the video content.

2. The number of posts that generated compensation during all reporting periods.

3. The total number of minutes of the posts that the content creator received compensation for during the reporting period.

4. The total number of minutes each minor was featured in posts during the reporting period.

5. The total compensation generated from posts featuring a minor during the reporting period.

6. The amount deposited in the trust account for the benefit of the minor engaged in the video content.

D. At regular intervals, a content creator shall provide notice to the minor of the existence of the records pursuant to subsection C of this section. The records required in subsection C of this section must be readily accessible to the minor for review.

E. If the content creator does not maintain records as required in subsection C of this section, the minor may commence an action to enforce this section. The court may award to a minor who prevails in any action brought in accordance with this section the following damages:

1. Injunctive relief.

2. Actual damages.

3. Punitive damages.

4. The costs of the action, including attorneys fees and litigation costs. END_STATUTE

START_STATUTE23-347. Trust account for minors; requirements; civil action

A. A content creator shall compensate a minor who was featured in the content creator's video content. The content creator shall deposit gross earnings on the video content that includes the likeness, name or photograph of the minor in a trust account that is to be preserved for the benefit of the minor until the minor is at least eighteen years of age according to either of the following distributions:

1. In which only one minor meets the content threshold prescribed in section 23-346, subsection A, the percentage of total gross earnings on any video segment, including the likeness, name or photograph of the minor, that is equal to or more than half of the content percentage that includes the minor.

2. In which more than one minor meets the content threshold prescribed in section 23-346, subsection A and a video segment includes the likeness, name or photograph of more than one minor, the percentage prescribed in paragraph 1 of this subsection must be equally divided between all minors, regardless of any difference in content percentage provided the minors and deposited in a separate trust for each minor.

B. At a minimum, a trust account required in this section must:

1. Be held by a bank, corporate fiduciary or trust company.

2. Hold the monies for the minor only.

3. Disburse the monies in the account to the minor:

(a) When the minor is at least eighteen years of age.

(b) On the minor's emancipation.

C. If a content creator knowingly or recklessly violates subsection A or B of this section, the minor may commence an action to enforce this section. The court may award to a minor who prevails in any action the following damages:

1. Injunctive relief.

2. Actual damages.

3. Punitive damages.

4. The costs of the action, including attorneys fees and litigation costs.

D. This section does not affect a right or remedy available under any other law of this state.

E. This section does not apply to a party that is not a content creator or a minor who is engaged in the work of video content. END_STATUTE

START_STATUTE23-348. Content removal requests; online hosting platforms; private right of action

A. On the effective date of this section, an individual who is at least eighteen years of age and who was featured in a content creator's video content as a minor may request that the content creator delete or edit the video content from the online hosting platform to remove the minor's uniquely identifiable information.

B. Online hosting platforms shall provide an easily accessible mechanism through which a removal request can be submitted to delete or edit the video content from the online hosting platform to remove the minor's uniquely identifiable information.

C. Removal requests submitted to an online hosting platform must include all information reasonably requested by the online hosting platform to identify the minor in the video content.

D. Online hosting platforms shall notify the content creator within a reasonable time period but not longer than thirty days on receipt of a request to remove video content.

E. The content creator shall delete the video content from the online hosting platform or edit the video content from the online hosting platform to remove the minor's uniquely identifiable information within seventy-two hours of receipt of the removal request from the online hosting platform.

F. If the content creator fails to remove the content within a reasonable period of time but not more than thirty days on receipt from the online hosting platform, the individual who requested removal may commence an action to enforce this section. If the individual who requested removal prevails in an action, the court may grant any of the following:

1. Injunctive relief.

2. Actual damages.

3. Punitive damages.

4. The costs of the action, including attorneys fees and litigation costs.

G. If a content creator fails to take action after a reasonable period of time but not more than thirty days, the online hosting platform shall review and take all reasonable steps to remove the content from the online hosting platform unless:

1. The individual who was featured in the content creator's video content as a minor does not submit sufficient, accurate information.

2. The online hosting platform finds that the video content is sufficiently newsworthy or of other public interest that outweighs the privacy interests of the minor involved.

H. This section does not affect a right or remedy available under any other law of this state. END_STATUTE

START_STATUTE23-349. Unlawful financial benefit; sexual depiction of minors; prohibition; exceptions

A. It is unlawful to financially benefit from knowingly or intentionally producing or distributing publicly, including by computer, any visual depiction of a minor with the intent to sexually gratify or elicit a sexual response in the viewer or any other person.

B. If a minor is included in the video content, an online hosting platform shall develop and implement a risk-based strategy to help mitigate risks related to the monetization of the knowing and intentional sexualization of a minor. This risk-based strategy must be documented and reassessed on a reasonable recurring basis. At the discretion of the online hosting platform, the risk-based strategy may include any of the following:

1. Policies that govern content and related monetization.

2. Restrictions of features on content featuring minors.

3. The use of automated systems to identify and enforce against potentially problematic content and accounts.

4. The inclusion of guardrails to mitigate against systems that are of interest to offenders.

5. Quality assurance processes recurring at reasonable intervals to ensure that mitigations are working as intended.

C. online hosting platforms shall make publicly available information that includes:

1. The legal requirements and information that explain the risks and steps that are necessary to protect minors who appear in video content.

2. Any information about the online hosting platform's policies, settings and best practices for featuring minors that are:

(a) Publicly available.

(b) Easily understandable to both adults and minors.

D. A minor may commence an action to enforce this section. The court may award to a minor who prevails in any action brought in accordance with this section the following damages:

1. Actual damages.

2. Punitive damages.

3. The costs of the action, including attorneys fees and litigation costs.

E. This section does not:

1. Affect a right or remedy available under any other law of this state.

2. Affect any lawfully authorized investigative or protective or intelligence activity of a law enforcement or intelligence agency of the United States, this state or a political subdivision of this state.

3. Apply in the case of an individual acting in good faith to report unlawful activity or in pursuance of a legal, professional or other lawful obligation.

4. Apply in the case of a document production or filing associated with a legal proceeding.

5. Apply to an online hosting platform with regard to content provided by content creators unless the online hosting platform intentionally solicits or knowingly and predominantly distributes unlawful content.

6. Impose liability in a manner that is inconsistent with 47 United States Code section 230. END_STATUTE