A bill brought by the attorney general’s office targeting artificially generated child pornography is advancing through the legislature.
Senate Bill 79 aims to re-classify child pornography offenses and add minimum prison sentences.
Sen. David Wheeler is an attorney and the prime sponsor of the bill. He said there has been an increase in child pornography prosecutions in the state.
“This bill takes the Attorney General’s concerns regarding computer-generated child pornography and incorporates them into our definitions to ensure that people can’t get away with this by claiming ‘oh, this isn’t a real person, it’s a computer-generated image.’ Also, just the fact that computer-generated images themselves still contribute to the problem of child pornography and child abuse,” said Wheeler.
He said current state law treats possession, distribution, and manufacturing as the same offense: a class-four felony. That’s punishable by up to 10 years in prison in South Dakota.
Wheeler said the bill separates the offenses.
“We thought it was appropriate to escalate the classifications for those separate offences," said Wheeler. "And then also, we felt it was appropriate to put some minimum sentences in there for this particular offense to make sure judges know that this is a crime that should result in a prison sentence.”
The bill passed the Senate floor with a vote of 32 to zero. It now heads to the House.
