§  64.201   Restrictions on indecent telephone message services.

   (a) It is a defense to prosecution for the provision of indecent
   communications under section 223(b)(2) of the Communications Act of
   1934, as amended (the Act), 47 U.S.C. 223(b)(2), that the defendant has
   taken the action set forth in paragraph (a)(1) of this section and, in
   addition, has complied with the following: Taken one of the actions set
   forth in paragraphs (a)(2), (3), or (4) of this section to restrict
   access to prohibited communications to persons eighteen years of age or
   older, and has additionally complied with paragraph (a)(5) of this
   section, where applicable:

   (1) Has notified the common carrier identified in section 223(c)(1) of
   the Act, in writing, that he or she is providing the kind of service
   described in section 223(b)(2) of the Act.

   (2) Requires payment by credit card before transmission of the message;
   or

   (3) Requires an authorized access or identification code before
   transmission of the message, and where the defendant has:

   (i) Issued the code by mailing it to the applicant after reasonably
   ascertaining through receipt of a written application that the
   applicant is not under eighteen years of age; and

   (ii) Established a procedure to cancel immediately the code of any
   person upon written, telephonic or other notice to the defendant's
   business office that such code has been lost, stolen, or used by a
   person or persons under the age of eighteen, or that such code is no
   longer desired; or

   (4) Scrambles the message using any technique that renders the audio
   unintelligible and incomprehensible to the calling party unless that
   party uses a descrambler; and,

   (5) Where the defendant is a message sponsor subscriber to mass
   announcement services tariffed at this Commission and such defendant
   prior to the transmission of the message has requested in writing to
   the carrier providing the public announcement service that calls to
   this message service be subject to billing notification as an adult
   telephone message service.

   (b) A common carrier within the District of Columbia or within any
   State, or in interstate or foreign commerce, shall not, to the extent
   technically feasible, provide access to a communication described in
   section 223(b) of the Act from the telephone of any subscriber who has
   not previously requested in writing the carrier to provide access to
   such communication if the carrier collects from subscribers an
   identifiable charge for such communication that the carrier remits, in
   whole or in part, to the provider of such communication.

   [ 52 FR 17761 , May 12, 1987, as amended at  55 FR 28916 , July 16, 1990]

   

Subpart C [Reserved]

   

Subpart D--Procedures for Handling Priority Services in Emergencies