§ 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]

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Subpart C—Furnishing of Facilities to Foreign Governments for International
Communications

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