ND
North Dakota House Bill HB1593

North Dakota 2025-2026 Regular Session

North Dakota House Bill HB1593 Compare Versions

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22 Sixty-ninth
33 Legislative Assembly
44 of North Dakota
55 Introduced by
66 Representatives Hendrix, Bolinske, VanWinkle, K. Anderson, M. Ruby, McLeod, Frelich,
77 Steiner
88 Senators Boehm, Paulson, Castaneda, Clemens
99 A BILL for an Act to create and enact a new section to chapter 51-07 of the North Dakota
10-Century Code, relating to a covered platform's liability for publishing or distributing sexual
11-material harmful to a minor; and to provide a penalty.
10+Century Code, relating to a commercial entity's liability for publishing or distributing sexual
11+material harmful to a minor; to provide a penalty; and to provide for application.
1212 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF NORTH DAKOTA:
1313 SECTION 1. A new section to chapter 51-07 of the North Dakota Century Code is created
1414 and enacted as follows:
1515 Liability for publishing or distributing sexual material harmful to minors - Age
16-verification requirements - Damages.
16+verification requirement - Damages.
1717 1.As used in this section:
18-a."Covered platform" means an entity that is a website that in the regular course of
19-business creates, hosts, or makes available content that meets the definition of
20-material harmful to a minor.
18+a."Commercial entity" includes a corporation, limited liability company, partnership,
19+limited partnership, sole proprietorship, or other legally recognized business
20+entity.
2121 b."Distribute" means to issue, sell, give, provide, deliver, transfer, transmute,
2222 circulate, or disseminate by any means.
2323 c."Minor" means an individual under eighteen years of age.
24-d."Publish" means to communicate or make information available to another
25-person on a publicly available internet website.
26-e."Reasonable age verification methods" includes verifying the individual seeking to
27-access the material is eighteen years of age or older by using:
28-(1)A state-issued operator's license;
29-(2)A state-issued identification;
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32-FIRST ENGROSSMENT
24+d."News-gathering organization" means an employee of a:
25+(1)Newspaper, news publication, or news source, printed or on an online or
26+mobile platform, of current news and public interest, who is acting within the
27+scope of employment and can provide documentation of employment with
28+the newspaper, news publication, or news source; or
29+(2)Radio broadcast station, television broadcast station, cable television
30+operator, or wire service, who is acting within the scope of employment and
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32+ HOUSE BILL NO. 1593
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55-(3)A government-issued identification;
56-(4)A digital identification;
57-(5)A credit card or debit card;
58-(6)Bank account information; or
59-(7)Any commercially reasonable method that reliably and accurately can verify
60-a user attempting to access a covered platform is a minor and prevent
61-access by minors to the context on a covered platform.
62-f."Sexual material harmful to a minor" includes material that:
57+can provide documentation of employment with the radio broadcast station,
58+television broadcast station, cable television operator, or wire service.
59+e."Publish" means to communicate or make information available to another
60+person on a publicly available internet website.
61+f."Reasonable age verification methods" includes verifying the individual seeking to
62+access the material is eighteen years of age or older by using:
63+(1)A digitized identification card; or
64+(2)Requiring the individual attempting to access the material to comply with a
65+commercial age verification system including the use of:
66+a.Government-issued identification; or
67+b.Any commercially reasonable method that relies on public or private
68+transactional data to verify the age of the individual attempting to
69+access the information is eighteen years of age or older.
70+g."Sexual material harmful to a minor" includes material that:
6371 (1)The average individual applying contemporary community standards would
6472 find, taking the material as a whole and with respect to a minor, is designed
6573 to appeal to or pander to the prurient interest;
6674 (2)In a manner patently offensive with respect to a minor, exploits, is devoted
6775 to, or principally consists of descriptions of actual, simulated, or animated
6876 displays or depictions of:
69-(a)An individual's pubic hair, anus, genitals, or the nipple of the female
77+a.An individual's pubic hair, anus, genitals, or the nipple of the female
7078 breast;
71-(b)Touching, caressing, or fondling of nipples, breasts, buttocks, anuses,
79+b.Touching, caressing, or fondling of nipples, breasts, buttocks, anuses,
7280 or genitals; or
73-(c)Sexual intercourse, masturbation, sodomy, bestiality, oral copulation,
81+c.Sexual intercourse, masturbation, sodomy, bestiality, oral copulation,
7482 flagellation, excretory functions, exhibitions, or any other sexual act;
83+and
7584 (3)Taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value
76-for a minor; and
77-(4)Is obscene, indecent, or child pornography.
78-2.A covered platform that knowingly publishes or distributes sexual material harmful to a
79-minor on the internet from a website must be held liable if the entity fails to perform
80-reasonable age verification methods to verify the age of an individual attempting to
81-access the material and fails to prevent access to the material by a minor.
82-3.A covered platform shall apply due diligence based on available technology and may
83-not rely solely on the internet protocol address to confirm the location of an individual
84-seeking to access the material.
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85+for a minor.
86+h."Substantial portion" means if more than thirty-three and one-third percent of total
87+material on a website is sexual material harmful to a minor.
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119+31 Sixty-ninth
120+Legislative Assembly
121+i."Transactional data" means a sequence of information that documents an
122+exchange, agreement, or transfer between an individual, commercial entity, or
123+third party used for the purpose of satisfying a request or event. The term
124+includes records from mortgage, education, and employment entities.
125+2.A commercial entity that knowingly publishes or distributes sexual material harmful to
126+a minor on the internet from a website that contains a substantial portion of the
127+material must be held liable if the entity fails to perform reasonable age verification
128+methods to verify the age of an individual attempting to access the material.
129+3.A commercial entity or third party that performs the required age verification may not
130+retain any identifying information of the individual after access has been granted to the
131+material.
132+4.A commercial entity found to have violated subsection 2 or 3 is liable for damages.
133+5.A civil action may be brought against any commercial entity, or third party that
134+performs the required age verification on behalf of the commercial entity, by:
135+a.A parent or guardian whose minor child was allowed access to the material in
136+violation of subsection 2; or
137+b.An individual whose identifying information is retained in violation of subsection 3.
138+6.An individual authorized to bring a civil action under subsection 5 may seek and the
139+court may award:
140+a.An injunction to enjoin continued violation of this section;
141+b.Compensatory and exemplary damages; and
142+c.Costs and fees, including reasonable attorney fees.
143+7.This section does not apply to any bona fide news or public interest broadcast,
144+website video, report, or event, and may not be construed to affect the rights of any
145+news-gathering organization.
146+8.An internet service provider or its affiliates or subsidiaries, a search engine, or a cloud
147+service provider may not be held to have violated this section solely for providing
148+access or connection to or from a website or other information or content on the
149+internet or a facility, system, or network not under the provider's control, including
150+transmission, downloading, intermediate storage, access software, or other forms of
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117-4.This section only applies to a minor who is a permanent resident in this state and has
118-been present in the state for at least thirty - one consecutive days.
119-5.A covered platform or third party must ensure that a reasonable age verification
120-method is designed to anonymize an individual's identity, may not retain any
121-identifying information of the individual after access has been granted to the material,
122-and be incapable of being used to create a record of the individual's online activity.
123-6.A covered platform found to have violated subsection 2 or 3 is liable for damages and
124-subject to a fine of ten thousand dollars for each day the violation occurs.
125-7.The attorney general shall enforce this section.
126-8.A civil action may be brought against any covered platform, or third party that performs
127-the required age verification on behalf of the covered platform, by:
128-a.A parent or guardian whose minor child was allowed access to the material in
129-violation of subsection 2; or
130-b.An individual whose identifying information is retained in violation of subsection 5.
131-9.An individual authorized to bring a civil action under subsection 8 may seek and the
132-court may award:
133-a.An injunction to enjoin continued violation of this section;
134-b.Compensatory and exemplary damages; and
135-c.Costs and fees, including reasonable attorney fees.
136-10.This section does not apply to any bona fide news or public interest broadcast,
137-website video, report, or event, and may not be construed to affect the rights of any
138-news-gathering organization.
139-11.An internet service provider or its affiliates or subsidiaries, a search engine, a cloud
140-service provider, or an application store may not be held to have violated this section
141-solely for providing access or connection to or from a website or other information or
142-content on the internet or a facility, system, or network not under the provider's control,
143-including transmission, downloading, intermediate storage, access software, or other
144-forms of access or storage to the extent the provider is not responsible for the creation
145-of the content of the communication that constitutes sexual material harmful to a
146-minor.
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183+access or storage to the extent the provider is not responsible for the creation of the
184+content of the communication that constitutes sexual material harmful to a minor.
185+SECTION 2. APPLICATION. This Act applies to websites accessed on or after the effective
186+date of this Act.
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