United States of America: Governor signed Bill establishing liability for commercial entities that would knowingly publish or distribute sexual material harmful to minors on websites where such material constitutes a substantial portion of content (SB 2380)

On 24 April 2025, the Governor signed a Bill to amend chapter 51-07 of the North Dakota Century Code, establishing liability for commercial entities that knowingly publish or distribute sexual material harmful to minors on websites where such material constitutes a substantial portion of the content. Covered entities are required to implement reasonable age verification methods, including digitised identification, government-issued identification, or commercial systems using public or private transactional data, to confirm that users are at least eighteen years old. Entities and third parties conducting verification are prohibited from retaining identifying information once access is granted. The Act provides for civil actions by parents or guardians of minors who gained unlawful access and by individuals whose data was unlawfully retained, with remedies including injunctions, damages, and costs. Exemptions apply to bona fide news-gathering organisations, as well as internet service providers, search engines, cloud service providers, and application stores not responsible for creating the content.