Parents' Empowerment Act
Latest action · May 20, 2004 Referred to the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property.
Progress
Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.
- IntroducedApr 28, 2004
- Passed HouseNot reached
- Passed SenateNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
Parents' Empowerment Act - Authorizes a minor, through a person acting on the minor's behalf, to obtain relief in a civil action in U.S. district court against anyone 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. Provides for recovery of compensatory and punitive damages.
Declares it to be an affirmative defense to such action that an act of a parent or guardian who owned the entertainment product was the proximate cause of the minor's exposure to the harmful material.
Defines "material that is harmful to minors" as any pornographic communication, picture, image, graphic image file, article, recording, writing, or other pornographic matter of any kind that: (1) is obscene; or (2) violates specified community standards with respect to suitability for minors and lacks sufficient literary, artistic, political, or scientific value to overcome its pernicious effects.
Cosponsors 2
Members who signed on, in the order they did. Signatures ran from May 4, 2004 to May 13, 2004.
| Seat | Cosponsor | Signed on | |
|---|---|---|---|
| R-MO | W. Todd Akin | May 4, 2004 | |
| R-OH | Robert W. Ney | May 13, 2004 |
Actions 3
Everything that happened, newest first.
- May 20, 2004Referred to the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property.
- Apr 28, 2004Introduced in House
- Apr 28, 2004Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Families.
- Arts, Culture, Religion
- Books
- Child health
- Child welfare
- Civil actions and liability
- Commerce
- Consumer protection
- Crime and Law Enforcement
- Damages
- Families
- Government Operations and Politics
- Law
- Legal fees
- Mental health
- Motion pictures
- Periodicals
- Photography
- Pornography
- Product safety
- Punitive damages
- Sound recording and reproducing
- Video games
Text 1
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- Apr 28, 2004Introduced in House
Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov.