Age Verification for Material Harmful to Minors
MT Age Verification Act
Children
Adult websites with a substantial share of material harmful to minors must use reasonable age verification (digitized ID, government ID, or transactional-data checks) before granting access. The verifier may not keep identifying information after access is granted. SB 488 (Ch. 199, L. 2025) made the law privately enforceable only, and a federal challenge (Free Speech Coalition v. Knudsen) was dismissed on August 6, 2025.
- Where
- Montana
- Citation
- Mont. Code Ann. 30-14-159
- Status
- In force
- In force since
- 2024-01-01
- Enforced by
- Private individuals only (30-14-159(6), as amended by SB 488 (2025))
- People can sue
- Yes
- Penalties
- Entities are liable to individuals for damages from a minor's access, and for damages from knowingly retaining identifying information after verification, plus court costs and attorney fees (30-14-159(3)).
- Applies to
- Commercial entities that knowingly and intentionally publish or distribute material harmful to minors online from a website where more than one-third of the material qualifies (30-14-159(1), (7)(i))
- Third-party age verification providers, as to data retention (30-14-159(2))
- Excludes bona fide news organizations and ISPs, search engines and cloud providers that merely provide access (30-14-159(4)-(5))
Practices it requires
- Use reasonable age verification methods (digitized ID card, or a commercial system using government ID or public or private transactional data) to confirm users are 18 or older before granting access.Mont. Code Ann. 30-14-159(1), (7)(h) · Only if: More than 33 1/3% of site material is harmful to minors
- Neither the commercial entity nor a third-party verifier may retain any identifying information after access is granted.Mont. Code Ann. 30-14-159(2)
Sources
- Official text
- Mont. Code Ann. 30-14-159 (Montana Legislature, MCA 2025)
- SB 488 (2025) enrolled bill, Ch. 199, L. 2025 (effective on passage and approval)
- Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Knudsen, No. 9:24-cv-00067 (D. Mont.) docket: order granting motion to dismiss Aug. 6, 2025
Checked against these sources on 2026-09-25 by research agent (Claude), primary sources.
Unverified: January 1, 2024 effective date for SB 544 (Ch. 700, L. 2023) is from secondary sources (FindLaw copy of the 2024 district court opinion); the session law was not fetched. | SB 488 (Ch. 199, L. 2025) is effective on passage and approval; the approval date was not verified, so last_amended is left null. | Whether the August 6, 2025 dismissal (reported as lack of standing after AG enforcement was removed) was appealed was not checked; the docket shows no later filings.
Research reference, not legal advice.