By Josh Linehan
The Brookings Register
BROOKINGS A pair of bills to help bring South Dakota law current with technology and sponsored by city officials look likely to become laws during this legislative session, spurred by the work of area officials.
The first, Senate Bill 77, would make it a crime to threaten a law enforcement official or their family online or on social media. The second, Senate Bill 79, would establish mandatory minimum sentences for possession, dissemination or production of child pornography as well as criminalize the same actions for child porn produced using artificial intelligence.
SB 77, criminalizing online threats to law enforcement, passed out of committee on Tuesday on a 5-1 vote and will now make its way to the house.
SB 79, criminalizing AI child pornography, passed unanimously out of committee in the Senate on Jan. 25 and had its first reading in the house on Monday.
Brookings County States Attorney Dan Nelson, who in his role as current president of the South Dakota States Attorneys Association, said the bills were necessary to keep the state current with evolving technology.
Referring to SB 79, Nelson said it Essentially closes a big loophole, and thats really important. If you look at pedophiles use of child porn, its something we see them using before they go hands on with kids. So if we can prevent that, if we can hold them accountable by intervening before they go hands on, thats our goal and this addresses that.
The AI bill prohibits both so-called deepfake pornography where actual pictures of people are altered to make them appear to be engaged in sexual activity and fully AI-generated child pornography, where the people involved are entirely invented by digital means.
The final SB 79 actually combined bills on child pornography. State Attorney General Marty Jackley championed the AI bill and spoke in favor of the final version at the State Senate Judiciary Committee.
The other part would establish mandatory minimums for child porn offenses, AI or otherwise. They would be a minimum of 1 year for possession, five years for distribution and 10 years for manufacturing.
The bill enjoys broad bipartisan support, and was also backed by Nelson and the attorneys general, co-sponsor Sen. Casey Crabtree, R-08; Sen. Tim Reed, R-07 and House Rep. Melissa Heermann, R-07.
Reed is also the sponsor of SB 77, which seeks to criminalize threats to law enforcement or their families made online.
He said the bill was necessary and he hoped it would clear the House soon.
When someone sits down and takes the time to write out a threat to law enforcement, on paper or online, thats something we need to deal with. Something said in the heat of a moment can be one thing, but with this, it needs to be a felony.
Reed was bullish about SB 77s prospects.
It really did well in judiciary, and I expect it to do well on the House floor, he said.
Nelson said it was a necessary adjustment to the old law, which required such threats to be made in writing to be a crime.
The old law didnt seem to fit what was actually happening, Nelson said. With the recent societal pressures and the increase in threats toward law enforcement and their families, it was time we addressed that.
This years legislative session has seen quick action on a large number of mostly pragmatic bills, in stark contrast to previous sessions.
I hope thats the case, Nelson said. There are things that need to get done that are easier to work on if were not beholden to some of the impulses that are out there.
Linehan is the Registers managing editor and welcomes comments at jlinehan@
brookingsregister.com
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