Protecting Young Persons from Exposure to Pornography Act

This bill, known as the Protecting Young Persons from Exposure to Pornography Act, creates a new offence for organizations that make pornographic material available online to anyone under 18 for commercial purposes. Companies found guilty face fines of up to $250,000 for a first offence and up to $500,000 for repeat offences. Businesses that only incidentally provide services used to access such material, such as general internet services, would not be captured. Organizations can defend themselves by showing they used a government-approved age-verification or age-estimation system, that their activity served a legitimate purpose (such as science, medicine, education, or the arts), or that they fixed the problem after being formally notified.

The bill sets up an enforcement process: a designated government enforcement authority can issue a notice to a non-compliant organization giving it 20 days to fix the problem. If the organization doesn't comply, the authority can ask the Federal Court to order internet service providers to block access to the material for young people in Canada. The government must also report annually to Parliament on how many notices and court applications were issued and their outcomes.

Finally, the bill gives the Governor in Council (Cabinet) power to make detailed regulations, including defining when free content counts as "commercial," specifying approved age-verification technologies (which must be highly effective, privacy-protecting, independently operated, and limited to only necessary data collection), and creating a system of administrative monetary penalties for organizations that ignore compliance notices. The law would come into force on a date set by the government, generally expected about a year after it receives royal assent.

This bill creates a new offence for organizations that make pornographic material available online to young persons for commercial purposes, and establishes a notice, court-order, and penalty system to enforce it.

• New offence and penalties — organizations that make pornographic material available to a young person online for commercial purposes are guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction, with fines up to $250,000 for a first offence and $500,000 for subsequent offences.
• Enforcement authority — the Governor in Council (Cabinet) may designate a federal agency, division or branch as the "enforcement authority" with power to issue non-compliance notices to organizations it has reasonable grounds to believe committed the offence, and to specify what steps the organization must take within 20 days.
• Court-ordered blocking — if an organization fails to comply with a notice, the enforcement authority may apply to the Federal Court for an order requiring Internet service providers to block access to the material in Canada; the Court must issue the order if it finds the statutory conditions met, and any affected ISPs are named as respondents.
• Regulation-making left to Cabinet — the Governor in Council may make regulations defining what counts as "commercial purposes," prescribing which age-verification or age-estimation methods count as a legal defence, and creating a system of administrative monetary penalties (with amounts left to be set by regulation) for organizations that ignore a notice.
• Defences — organizations avoid conviction if they used a prescribed age-verification/estimation method, if the material had a legitimate purpose (science, medicine, education, arts), or if they complied with a notice's required steps in time.
• Oversight — the Minister designated under the Act must table an annual report in Parliament on notices issued, court applications made, and their outcomes; there is no sunset clause, and the Act only comes into force on a date fixed by Cabinet order.