Act on Development of an Environment that Provides Safe and Secure Internet Use for Young People, carrier and device filtering duties
In force
Act No. 79 of 2008, Arts. 2, 13-19
Applies to private
A person is a young person (seishonen) under this Act if under 18. Before concluding a mobile phone or PHS internet-connection service contract, the carrier must confirm whether the counterparty is a young person and, if not, whether the actual device user is (Art. 13).
The carrier must then provide the internet connection conditional on use of a youth-harmful-information filtering service whenever the contracting party or device user is a young person, unless the young person's guardian opts out (Art. 15), and a seller of a covered mobile handset must implement filtering-enabled measures on the same conditional basis (Art. 16).
A general (fixed-line) internet connection provider must supply filtering software or a filtering service on request from any user (Art. 17). A manufacturer of an internet-connectable device must build in or otherwise ease the use of filtering software before selling the device (Art. 18), and a developer of software that directly controls such a device's operation must make a best-efforts attempt to the same end (Art. 19). The Act carries no penalty, fine, or administrative-order provision for a violation of any of these duties.
| Age threshold | 18 |
| Enforcement body | no enforcement body or administrative order power is created by this Act |
| Private suits | no |
Source: Full text of law
Act on Regulation on Soliciting Children by Using Opposite Sex Introducing Service on Internet
In force
Act No. 83 of 2003, Arts. 2, 6-17, 31-37
Applies to private
A child under this Act is a person under 18 (Art. 2(1)). An internet dating (opposite sex introduction) service operator must, per National Public Safety Commission rule and in advance, confirm that a person seeking correspondence is not a child before relaying that person's information to another user or letting the two exchange contact details, unless the operator's own prior identity-confirmation procedure already covers that person (Art. 11).
The operator must also display and communicate a notice that children may not use the service (Arts. 9-10) and must notify the National Public Safety Commission before starting the business (Art. 7(1)). The prefectural Public Safety Commission may direct an operator that breaches the Act to correct the breach (Art. 13) and may order a suspension of up to six months, or a closure, for specified further violations (Art. 14).
Violating a suspension or closure order carries imprisonment up to one year, a fine up to JPY 1,000,000, or both (Art. 31). Operating without the required notification, breaching the Art. 9 duty, or violating an Art. 13 or Art. 15(2)(i) instruction carries imprisonment up to six months or a fine up to JPY 1,000,000 (Art. 32).
A false or missing notification under Art. 7 carries a fine up to JPY 300,000 (Art. 34), and a company is fined the same amount as its employee or agent under the dual-liability rule (Art. 35).
| Age threshold | 18 |
| Enforcement body | prefectural Public Safety Commission (koan iinkai) |
| Private suits | no |
Source: Full text of law