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HB 1561

AN ACT to create and enact a new section to chapter 51-07 of the North Dakota Century Code, relating to a commercial entity's liability for publishing or distributing sexual material harmful to a minor; to provide a penalty; and to provide for application.

69th Legislative Assembly (2025-26) Introduced by Michelle Axtman and 9 co-sponsors

ND bill requires certain sites with substantial minor sexual material to verify age before access and bans retaining IDs, with civil liability for violations.

Filed with Secretary Of State 04/11
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WeVote Research Nonpartisan
Bill Summary · HB 1561

Summary — North Dakota HB 1561 (2025)

Title: Liability for publishing or distributing sexual material harmful to a minor; age‑verification requirement; damages. (New section to NDCC ch. 51‑07)

Main purpose

To require commercial websites that host a substantial portion of sexual material harmful to minors to use reasonable age‑verification methods and to create civil liability (including damages and injunctive relief) where the site fails to verify age or where required age‑verification processes improperly retain identifying information.

Key provisions

  • Definitions (selected)

    • "Commercial entity": any business entity (corp., LLC, partnership, sole proprietorship, etc.).
    • "Minor": under 18 years of age.
    • "Publish": make information available on a publicly available internet website.
    • "Reasonable age verification methods": includes digitized identification cards or commercial age‑verification systems relying on government‑issued ID or commercially reasonable use of public/private transactional data.
    • "Sexual material harmful to a minor": material that (1) by contemporary community standards appeals to the prurient interest with respect to a minor; (2) is patently offensive in its depiction of specified sexual acts or sexual body parts; and (3) lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for a minor.
    • "Substantial portion": more than 33 1/3% of a website’s total material.

  • Age‑verification duty

    • A commercial entity that knowingly publishes or distributes sexual material harmful to a minor from a website that contains a "substantial portion" of such material must perform reasonable age verification before allowing access.

  • Data‑retention restriction

    • A commercial entity or third party performing the age verification may not retain identifying information of the individual after access is granted.

  • Civil remedies and plaintiffs

    • Civil actions may be brought by:
    • A parent or guardian of a minor who was allowed access in violation of the law; or
    • An individual whose identifying information was retained in violation of the retention prohibition.
    • Remedies the court may award: injunctions, compensatory and exemplary (punitive) damages, and costs and attorney fees.

  • Exceptions and limits on liability

    • The law does not apply to bona fide news or other public‑interest broadcasts, reports, or events and may not infringe news‑gathering rights.
    • Internet service providers, search engines, app stores, cloud providers, and similar intermediaries are not liable solely for providing access/connection or transmission where they are not responsible for creating the prohibited content.

  • Application

    • The law applies to websites accessed on or after the statute’s effective date.

Who is affected

  • Adult‑content commercial websites accessible from North Dakota (especially those where >33.3% of content fits the statute’s definition).
  • Third‑party age‑verification vendors that perform verification for such sites.
  • Parents/guardians and individuals who may pursue civil claims.
  • ISPs and platform intermediaries — expressly given limited protection where they are not content creators.
  • News organizations — expressly exempted.

Procedural / timeline notes (legislative record)

  • Bill introduced in the 69th Legislative Assembly; received unanimous floor votes in House and Senate per the enrolled copy.
  • Legislative record shows the bill was enrolled and forwarded for executive action; a filed date with the Secretary of State appears on the record (04/11/2025). The act status and exact effective date should be confirmed in the final enrolled act or state register; the statute applies to websites accessed on or after the law’s effective date.

Practical impact and considerations

  • Compliance costs: commercial sites may need to implement or contract for compliant age verification systems that do not retain identifying data after verification.
  • Privacy tradeoffs: permitted verification methods include reliance on transactional data — but the statute bans retention of identifying data, presenting operational design questions for vendors.
  • Litigation exposure: creates new private‑right‑of‑action with potential for injunctions and exemplary damages.
  • Scope: the >33.3% "substantial portion" threshold narrows application to sites heavily characterized by sexual material harmful to minors rather than all sites hosting occasional content.
  • Enforcement and interpretation questions likely to arise: what constitutes “knowingly” publishing; application of community standards; how vendors can validate age without retaining identifiers; interaction with federal law and constitutional protections.

If you want, I can:
- Extract the exact statutory text and highlight potential ambiguity points for litigation risk;
- Prepare a short compliance checklist for websites and verification vendors.

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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