§ 98B.009.Statute of Limitations

A 2025 limitations provision, and both its length and its trigger are unusual.

Suit must be brought not later than 10 years after the later of: the date the depicted person reasonably discovers the intimate visual material; or the date the depicted person turns 18 years of age.

Ten years is a long period against the two-year default for personal injury, and it reflects how this material behaves. It circulates, is re-posted, and resurfaces years later, and a person may not learn of its existence for a long time.

The discovery trigger is what makes the period workable. Running from the disclosure would start the clock at a moment the depicted person may know nothing about.

The minority trigger is the more protective, and note that it is the "later of." A person depicted as a child has ten years from turning 18 — until age 28 — regardless of when the material was discovered or created.

Compare the medical liability chapter, where minors under 12 have only until their fourteenth birthday, and the ordinary rule that limitations is tolled during minority. This chapter gives the full ten years measured from majority.

The provision applies to the whole chapter, so it governs claims for AI-generated material and against platforms as well as the original disclosure claim.