By: Michael Achterling (North Dakota Monitor)
The North Dakota Legislature passed expanded regulations and penalties surrounding pornography and deepfake content during the 2025 session.
Gov. Kelly Armstrong signed bills that added age-verification requirements for websites publishing explicit content. He also signed a bill that added civil penalties for the creation and distribution of deepfake, or computer-generated, pornographic material without a subject’s consent. Both laws will go into effect Aug. 1.
Senate Bill 2380 and House Bill 1561 both will require age verification for websites containing a substantial portion of pornographic material that could be considered harmful to minors.
Rep. Steve Swiontek, R-Fargo, chief sponsor of House Bill 1561, said children are being exposed to pornography in significant numbers by age 12 and even more by age 17, which is one of the main reasons he sponsored the bill.
“The thought was there should be some requirement and expectations that these adult entertainment sites who are getting paid for this … that they should be mandated and required to verify age,” Swiontek said. “I think we have a moral obligation for these kids.”
Those websites under the new law would need to implement a verification system to confirm the user is over 18.
Swiontek said the age-verification bill was modeled after a similar bill was implemented in Utah in 2023. Critics of that bill pointed to ways it could be circumvented, The Associated Press reported.
Swiontek said there isn’t a “fool proof” way to stop minors from accessing pornographic websites.
“If we can prevent 90% of these things from happening, then it’s been a success,” Swiontek said. “And then, it can be tweaked two years from now as well.”
None of the information obtained while conducting age verification may be retained.
Websites that fail to comply with the age-verification requirements may be held liable for damages by a parent or guardian of a minor who accessed the explicit content or a person whose information was retained after the verification process.
The new law exempts internet service providers, search engines, cloud services and application stores from liability for facilitating connection between users and websites.
Cody Schuler, advocacy manager for the American Civil Liberties Union of North Dakota, said pornography is protected under the First Amendment. He added the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments over a similar age-verification law implemented in Texas and the court is expected to issue its decision in June or July.
“We are not opposed to protecting children,” Schuler said. “The concern becomes when … we put undue burden upon those individuals who are legal to access pornography.”
Schuler added that data collection by third-party age-verification hosts can also bring up potential privacy concerns.
“It is really important for us to hear what comes next from the Supreme Court and then look at where things go from there as far as what laws or corrections might need to be made,” he said.
House Bill 1351 makes it a misdemeanor to create, possess and distribute sexually expressive images, including real, altered or computer-generated deepfakes, that show nude or partially denuded figures without consent.
The new law also provides an avenue for victims of those images to file civil lawsuits to recover up to $10,000 in statutory damages caused by the distribution. Plaintiffs would also be able to recover any money gained by a defendant through the distribution of the image.
Swiontek said he voted in support of the bill because it becomes difficult to get rid of manufactured, false content once it enters the internet.
“There has to be an obligation and a penalty for people who do that,” Swiontek said.
North Dakota lawmakers also passed Senate Concurrent Resolution 4017, which asks the Legislative Management Committee to consider studying the “detrimental impacts of pornography.”
The goal of the study is to examine education, prevention and research of the societal consequences stemming from pornography. The resolution text alleges the porn industry “produces media that objectifies women and children, and depicts rape and abuse, perpetuating the demand for sex trafficking, prostitution, child pornography and sexual abuse images.”
The Legislative Management Committee received requests for 66 different studies to be completed during the interim, 19 of which are mandatory studies. Previously, John Bjornson, director of Legislative Council, said the committee could realistically complete about 45 studies during the 18-month interim.
The committee will meet for the first time during the interim Tuesday in Fargo.
President Donald Trump signed the Take It Down Act last week, which requires platforms to take down nonconsensual intimate depictions of individuals, real or deepfake images, within 48 hours of being notified or they may face criminal or civil penalties.
