FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024

Contact: Tony Mangan, Communications Director, 605-773-6878

PIERRE, S.D. – Senate Bill 79, which revises various levels of child pornography crime and which also includes the Attorney General’s Office’s bill that would make Artificial Intelligence-generated child pornography a crime, was unanimously approved Tuesday by the State Senate Judiciary Committee

The bill clarifies and strengthens the sections of the crimes of possession, distribution, and manufacturing of child pornography. The legislation, which is a combination of other bills on the same issue, was introduced by Sen. David Wheeler of Huron and Rep. Fred Deutsch of Florence.

Included in SB 79 bill is language first proposed by the Attorney General’s Office in Senate Bill 25 That bill would revise certain definitions to the current child pornography laws and criminalize the possession, manufacturing, or distribution of child pornography to include Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated image and videos. That would include “deepfake” images or videos of an actual child that have been manipulated to make it look like the subject is a child engaged in prohibited sexual acts and AI-generated images that do not depict any actual person but are created to look like a child engaged in prohibited sexual acts.  

“This legislation strengthens and further clarifies South Dakota’s child pornography protections,” said Attorney General Marty Jackley, who spoke in support of SB 79. “With this legislation, those protections would include Artificial Intelligence-generated child pornography, and I applaud Sen. Wheeler and Rep. Deutsch for their work in strengthening our laws.”

The bill now goes to the full Senate.

Senate Bill 79 can be found here: https://sdlegislature.gov/Session/Bill/24991

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