Law / United States / 
North Dakota
HB 1561, age verification for sexual material harmful to minors
2025 H.B. 1561 (new section of N.D. Cent. Code ch. 51-07; the codified section, N.D. Cent. Code § 51-07-32, carries the text of 2025 S.B. 2380)
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 sexual material harmful to minors on a website where more than one third of the content meets that definition.
- Perform reasonable age verification, such as a digitized identification card or a commercial verification system using a government ID or transactional data.no control in the NIST Privacy Framework
- Do not retain identifying information after access is granted; this binds a third party performing verification as well.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
Injunctions, compensatory and exemplary damages, attorney fees, sought by a parent, guardian, or affected individual.
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
None (private civil action only); no designated state enforcement agency
Settledness
The section is enforced through civil actions by a parent, guardian or affected individual, so no regulator construes it.
- As of
- Open questions
- Does "knowingly" in subsection 2 of the new section created by House Bill 1561 require that a commercial entity know the share of its website that is sexual material harmful to a minor, or only that it knowingly publishes or distributes the material?
- How is a "substantial portion" of "total material on a website" in subsection 2 of the new section created by House Bill 1561 measured for a site that mixes sexual material harmful to a minor with other content, by number of items, running time or page views?
What it reaches
Age threshold
18
Covered services
Commercial websites where more than one third of total material is sexual material harmful to a minor
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 thirty-three and one-third percent of total material on a website is sexual material harmful to a minor.
What it makes you log
Log retention
- As of
- Basis
- Purpose bound
- Prohibits retaining
- Any identifying information of the individual, held by the commercial entity or by a third party that performs the age verification, after access has been granted to the material
Logging duty
The section requires reasonable age verification and bars keeping identifying information once access is granted. It names no log, record or proof of the check.
- Kind
- None
- As of
- Provision
- 2025 H.B. 1561, new section to N.D.C.C. ch. 51-07, subsections 2 and 3
What this law does
Commercial entities that knowingly publish or distribute sexual material harmful to minors on a website where more than one third of the content meets that definition must perform reasonable age verification, such as a digitized identification card or a commercial verification system using a government ID or transactional data.
A commercial entity or third party performing verification may not retain identifying information after access is granted, and enforcement is through private civil suits only.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app publishes adult content.
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