HB 1593 — A BILL for an Act to create and enact a new section to chapter 51-07 of the North Dakota Century Code, relating to a covered platform's liability for publishing or distributing sexual material harmful to a minor; and to provide a penalty.

25.0746.0100025.0746.02000 Sixty-ninth Legislative Assembly of North Dakota FIRST ENGROSSMENT ENGROSSED HOUSE BILL NO.

1593 of North Dakota Introduced by Representatives Hendrix, Bolinske, VanWinkle, K.

Ruby, McLeod, Frelich, Steiner Senators Boehm, Paulson, Castaneda, Clemens A BILL for an Act to create and enact a new section to chapter 51-07 of the North Dakota Century Code, relating to a commercialcovered entity'splatform's liability for publishing or distributing sexual material harmful to a minor;

and to provide a penalty;penalty.

and to provide for application.

Liability for publishing or distributing sexual material harmful to minors - Age verification requirementrequirements - Damages.

"Commercial"Covered entity"platform" includesmeans an entity that is a corporation,website limitedthat liabilityin company,the partnership,regular limitedcourse partnership,of solebusiness proprietorship,creates, hosts, or othermakes legallyavailable recognizedcontent businessthat entity.meets the definition of material harmful to a minor.

"News-gathering organization" means an employee of a:

(1) Newspaper, news publication, or news source, printed or on an online or mobile platform, of current news and public interest, who is acting within the scope of employment and can provide documentation of employment with the newspaper, news publication, or news source;

or (2) Radio broadcast station, television broadcast station, cable television operator, or wire service, who is acting within the scope of employment and Page No.

1 25.0746.01000 Sixty-ninth Legislative Assembly can provide documentation of employment with the radio broadcast station, television broadcast station, cable television operator, or wire service.

e.

f.e.

(1) A digitizedstate-issued identificationoperator's card;license;

or (2) RequiringA thestate-issued individualidentification; attempting to access the material to comply with a commercial age verification system including the use of:

(a)Page Government-issuedNo. identification;

or1 (b)25.0746.02000 AnySixty-ninth commerciallyLegislative reasonableAssembly method(3) thatA reliesgovernment-issued onidentification; public or private transactional data to verify the age of the individual attempting to access the information is eighteen years of age or older.

g.(4) A digital identification;

(5) A credit card or debit card;

(6) Bank account information;

or (7) Any commercially reasonable method that reliably and accurately can verify a user attempting to access a covered platform is a minor and prevent access by minors to the context on a covered platform.

f.

and (3) Taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for a minor.minor;

h.and (4) Is obscene, indecent, or child pornography.

"Substantial portion" means if more than thirty-three and one-third percent of total material on a website is sexual material harmful to a minor.

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2 25.0746.01000 Sixty-ninth Legislative Assembly i.

"Transactional data" means a sequence of information that documents an exchange, agreement, or transfer between an individual, commercial entity, or third party used for the purpose of satisfying a request or event.

The term includes records from mortgage, education, and employment entities.

A commercialcovered entityplatform that knowingly publishes or distributes sexual material harmful to a minor on the internet from a website that contains a substantial portion of the material must be held liable if the entity fails to perform reasonable age verification methods to verify the age of an individual attempting to access the material.material and fails to prevent access to the material by a minor.

A commercialcovered entityplatform orshall thirdapply partydue thatdiligence performsbased theon requiredavailable agetechnology verificationand may not retainrely anysolely identifyingon informationthe ofinternet theprotocol individualaddress afterto accessconfirm hasthe beenlocation grantedof an individual seeking to access the material.

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A commercial entity found to have violated subsection 2 or25.0746.02000 3Sixty-ninth isLegislative liableAssembly for4. damages.

This section only applies to a minor who is a permanent resident in this state and has been present in the state for at least thirty-one consecutive days.

A civilcovered actionplatform mayor bethird broughtparty againstmust ensure that a reasonable age verification method is designed to anonymize an individual's identity, may not retain any commercialidentifying entity,information orof thirdthe partyindividual thatafter performsaccess has been granted to the requiredmaterial, ageand verificationbe onincapable behalfof being used to create a record of the commercialindividual's entity,online by:activity.

6.

A covered platform found to have violated subsection 2 or 3 is liable for damages and subject to a fine of ten thousand dollars for each day the violation occurs.

7.

The attorney general shall enforce this section.

8.