A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to amend the law regarding liability of a commercial social networking site to provide that the web site shall not be held civilly liable for damages arising out of communications on the web site if the web site makes a good-faith attempt to screen out users who are in the statewide sex offender registry.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 14‑202.5A reads as rewritten:
"§ 14‑202.5A.  Liability of commercial social networking sites.
(a)	A commercial social networking site, as defined in G.S. 14‑202.5, that complies with G.S. 14‑208.15A or makes other reasonable efforts to prevent a sex offender who is registered in accordance with Article 27A of Chapter 14 of the General Statutes from accessing its Web site shall not be held civilly liable for damages arising out of a person's communications on the social networking site's system or network regardless of that person's status as a registered sex offender in North Carolina or any other jurisdiction.(b)	For the purposes of this section, "access" is defined as allowing the sex offender to do any of the activities or actions described in G.S. 14‑202.5(b)(2) through G.S. 14‑202.5(b)(4) by utilizing the Web site."
SECTION 2.  G.S. 14‑208.15A(d) reads as rewritten:
"(d)	The Division shall develop standards regarding the release and use of online identifier information. The standards shall include a requirement that the information obtained from the statewide registry shall not be disclosed for any purpose other than for prescreening its users or comparing the database of registered users of the entity against the list of online identifiers of persons in the statewide registry."
SECTION 3.  This act becomes effective May 1, 2009.