A Senate panel is advancing a House proposal to require individuals provide identification to access pornographic material online.
It’s an idea debated by state lawmakers since legislative session last year.
The bill goes farther than other states that already regulate this internet access. It says "a website for which it is in the regular course of the website's trade or business to create, host, or make available material that is harmful to minors" must set up age verification methods.
It’s an idea brought by Rep. Bethany Soye. The Sioux Falls Republican’s proposal does not have a threshold similar to what many other states have adopted—which require the age verification method if a third of a platform’s content is pornographic.
That’s currently being considered by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Soye was a member of an interim committee created last year to study the issue. She calls the one-third standard it adopted “arbitrary.”
“How do you even judge that standard? Is it based on pixels? Is it the minutes of video? Is it different web pages?" Soye said. "I think that’s something we need to consider.”
Senate Judiciary advanced Soye's proposal Tuesday.
Critics of the idea include the ACLU South Dakota, which said the bill could create a situation ripe for extortion—combining government issued IDs with sensitive browsing data.
Republican State Sen. David Wheeler, R-Huron, sat on the interim committee looking at this issue last year.
Wheeler voted in favor of the bill, but says he expects the state to face a lawsuit if the governor signs it into law.
“We’re going to be on our own, then, on this particular litigation, whether or not it’s going to be overbroad or under inclusive," Wheeler said. "I think it was better for us to stick with every other that has adopted this—not everyone has adopted 33 and a third, but almost all of them have. I thought it was better for us to do that.”
The House bill now heads to the Senate floor. If it passes without an amendment, it will head to the governor’s desk to get signed into law.
