Law / United States / 
Montana
SB 544, Revise Internet Laws Related to Material Harmful to Minors
Mont. Code Ann. section 30-14-159
In force since .
An adult content age verification (AV) rule binding private bodies.
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- Applies to commercial entities that knowingly publish or distribute material harmful to minors where a substantial portion of the site is such material.
- Use reasonable age verification methods before granting access.no control in the NIST Privacy Framework
- Do not retain identifying information after verification.NIST Privacy FrameworkCT.DM-P5
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
In the frameworks
- NIST Privacy Framework
- CT.DM-P5Data are destroyed according to policy.
- NIST CSF 2.0
- ID.AM-08Systems, hardware, software, services, and data are managed throughout their life cycles
- FINOS AIGF
- AIR-DET-004AI System Observability
- AIR-DET-021Agent Decision Audit and Explainability
Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework, and in the NIST Privacy Framework, line by line beside each duty above. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureNo
Private right of actionYes
Penalties
Civil damages, court costs, and attorney fees, recoverable only by individuals pursuing a private claim
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
No state agency enforcement; the section may be enforced only by individuals claiming damages under subsection (3)
Litigation
- Court
- U.S. District Court for the District of Montana
- Docket
- Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Knudsen, No. 9:24-cv-00067
- Posture
- In August 2025 the court dismissed the plaintiffs' First Amendment challenge for lack of standing after Montana amended the law to remove the Attorney General's enforcement authority, leaving only a private right of action. The statute remains in effect.
Settledness
The section can be enforced only by individuals claiming damages, so no regulator construes it.
- As of
- Open questions
- How is "more than 33 1/3% of total material on a website" in section 30-14-159(7)(i), MCA, measured for a site that mixes material harmful to minors with other content, by number of items, running time or page views?
- Which methods other than government-issued identification count as "any commercially reasonable method that relies on public or private transactional data" under section 30-14-159(7)(h), MCA?
What it reaches
Age threshold
18
Covered services
Commercial websites where a substantial portion of published material is harmful to minors
Obligation class
Age verification, Retention
Verification methods
Digital ID, Gov ID, Transactional data
Applicability criteria
- As of
- Combinator
- All of
- Criteria
- "Substantial portion" means more than 33 1/3% of total material on a website, which meets the definition of "material harmful to minors" as defined by this section.
What it makes you log
Log retention
Section 30-14-159(2); subsection (3)(b) gives the individual a damages action against an entity that knowingly retained it; only individuals may enforce (subsection (6)).
- As of
- Basis
- Purpose bound
- Prohibits retaining
- Any identifying information of the individual, after access has been granted to the material
Logging duty
Section 30-14-159(2) forbids the entity or its third-party verifier to retain identifying information of the individual after access is granted, and subsection (3)(b) makes knowing retention actionable by the individual. The section names no record of the check.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
Requires commercial entities that knowingly publish or distribute material harmful to minors, where a substantial portion of the site is such material, to use reasonable age verification methods before granting access, and bars retention of identifying information after verification.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app publishes adult content.
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