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House panel advances bill requiring online age checks for adult content, adds fines and privacy limits
Summary
The House Judiciary Committee amended and voted to advance HB 1593, a measure that would require websites that distribute obscene or indecent material to verify users’ ages, add a private right of action, impose a per‑day fine for noncompliance, and restrict retention of verification data.
The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday amended and approved House Bill 1593, a measure that would require online platforms that regularly publish obscene or indecent material to verify a user’s age before granting access and to limit retention of any identifying information collected for verification.
Sponsor Representative Jared Hendricks, R‑Fargo, told the committee the bill is intended to protect minors from “mental, emotional and developmental” harms and that drafters tailored the text to address issues raised in recent federal court proceedings. “This legislation is [a] forward‑thinking, comprehensive, and constitutional approach to ensuring minors are protected from harmful, primarily pornographic online content,” Hendricks said.
The bill replaces a prior threshold test used in similar proposals with a “regular course of business” standard to target platforms that profit from harmful material and avoid sweeping in sites that incidentally host protected speech. HB 1593 lists acceptable…
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