In 2025, North Dakota joined a growing list of U.S. states enacting legislation to restrict access to online content for minors. The state’s new age verification law targets online platforms hosting adult content and sets compliance expectations that businesses can’t afford to overlook. Whether you’re a content provider, platform operator, or digital rights advocate, understanding the scope and implications of this law is essential.
What Is the North Dakota Age Verification Law?
North Dakota’s age verification law, which took effect in early 2025, is part of a nationwide movement aimed at protecting minors from exposure to sexually explicit material online. Modeled after similar legislation in Utah, Texas, and Louisiana, the law requires websites hosting such content to implement robust age checks before granting access.
The legislation emerged amid rising political and parental concerns over children’s online safety. Lawmakers emphasized the need for online platforms to adopt similar standards to those expected in physical retail environments.
Age Verification Requirements Under the Law
Under North Dakota’s law, websites that host more than 33.3% (one-third) of content deemed “harmful to minors” must require users to verify their age before accessing the material. Acceptable forms of verification include:
- Government-issued ID verification (e.g., driver’s license or passport)
- Secure third-party digital age verification services
- Biometric or facial recognition tools (if privacy standards are met)
Crucially, self-attestation or “click to enter” age gates are no longer sufficient. Platforms must implement a system that reasonably ensures that the user is at least 18 years old.
Who Must Comply with North Dakota’s Law?
North Dakota’s new law, introduced as a house bill in 2024 and enacted in 2025, places the onus of age-gating responsibility squarely on a wide range of commercial entities. The primary goal is to block access to mature content and harmful material by implementing reasonable age verification methods that prevent minors from accessing such content online.
Entities Required to Comply:
Pornographic websites and adult content platforms
Any website where adult material, including videos, images, or written content, constitutes a substantial portion (defined as more than 33.3% of overall content) is subject to the law. These platforms must deploy commercial age verification systems to ensure compliance.
Social media platforms that host or promote explicit material
Platforms that allow or promote mature content, particularly when user-generated, fall under scrutiny. Even if the platform itself is not explicitly adult-oriented, hosting a substantial portion of harmful material may trigger legal obligations.
User-generated content platforms
Sites such as forums, video-sharing hubs, and content aggregators must evaluate whether a substantial portion of their material could be classified as harmful to minors. If so, the law requires them to adopt reasonable age verification methods before granting access.
International and domestic entities
The law applies broadly to any commercial entities that allow access to online pornography or adult material in North Dakota, regardless of where the company is headquartered. Operating globally does not exempt a site from the law if its services reach North Dakota residents.
Internet service providers (ISPs) and hosting services are not the primary targets of the legislation, but ISPs may be drawn into enforcement conversations if they knowingly facilitate access to non-compliant content providers.
Legal Obligations and Penalties
Entities falling under the law’s scope must take reasonable steps to prevent underage users from bypassing verification gates. This includes using commercial age verification systems that may involve identity checks via government-issued IDs or third-party solutions that assess private transactional data or employ biometric tools, provided that user privacy and data protection laws are also observed.
Failure to comply can result in civil penalties, lawsuits by impacted parties, or legal action initiated by the state attorney general. As seen in similar adult content age verification laws passed in other states like Utah, Texas, and Louisiana, enforcement may include cease-and-desist orders, monetary fines, and even potential criminal liability in extreme cases.
In short, North Dakota’s law doesn’t just target explicit content, it targets access pathways, requiring anyone facilitating access to harmful material to prove they’ve taken reasonable and commercially sound steps to restrict it from minors.
How North Dakota Compares to Other States’ Age Laws
North Dakota’s law mirrors many provisions from earlier age verification laws passed in Utah, Texas, and Louisiana. However, there are some distinctions:
- Utah requires platforms to implement age verification and digital parental consent tools.
- Texas imposes steep fines and allows individuals to sue platforms for non-compliance.
- Louisiana pioneered the model with its 2023 law requiring government-issued ID checks for adult sites.
North Dakota’s version is slightly less aggressive than Texas’s but still establishes firm expectations. The 33.3% content threshold is a key difference — not all adult content platforms fall under the law, but those that do must act decisively.
Business Impact and How to Stay Compliant
For businesses, the law presents both logistical and legal challenges:
- Technical Integration: Companies must embed or contract age verification solutions into their websites.
- Data Privacy: Ensuring compliance with federal and state privacy laws (e.g., COPPA, CCPA) while collecting sensitive user data.
- Legal Risk: Non-compliance may expose businesses to lawsuits, fines, and reputational damage.
To stay compliant, businesses should:
- Audit content to determine if the 33.3% threshold is met.
- Choose a reputable age verification provider that offers ID or biometric solutions.
- Implement strong privacy policies explaining how age verification data is handled.
- Monitor ongoing legislation, as laws may evolve or face legal challenges.
The Bigger Picture: Age Verification Laws Across the U.S.
Age verification laws are quickly becoming the norm in the U.S. As of mid-2025, over a dozen states have either passed or introduced similar legislation, indicating a broader shift toward more regulated online content environments.
Federal legislation has also been proposed, but state-level laws are currently driving enforcement. Businesses operating nationally must now contend with a patchwork of rules, each with different definitions, thresholds, and penalties.
In the long term, this trend may push tech companies to adopt universal age verification systems to reduce complexity and liability.
