Law / United States / 
South Dakota
HB 1053 (2025), age verification for websites containing material harmful to minors
S.D. Codified Laws ch. 22-24 (new sections enacted by 2025 S.D. Laws, HB 1053)
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What follows is LexLint's own research summary of this law, not legal advice.
In force since 1 July 2025.
An adult content age verification (AV) rule binding private bodies.
As of 15 July 2026.
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
Requires a covered platform, defined as a website whose regular course of trade or business is to create, host, or make available material harmful to minors, to implement reasonable age verification (state issued driver license or non-driver ID, bank account information, an age restricted debit or credit card, or another reliable method) and to prevent minors from accessing that material. Verifiers may not sell or retain identifying information. Search engines, internet service providers, and cloud providers are exempt.
If you get it wrong
Private right of actionNo
Penalties
Class 1 misdemeanor for a first violation; Class 6 felony for a subsequent violation by the same platform; injunction and civil penalty of up to $5,000 per instance, recoverable only in an action by the attorney general after a 90 day notice and cure period.
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
South Dakota Attorney General; the act states it may not be construed as the basis for a new private right of action.
What it reaches
Age threshold
18
Covered services
Covered platforms: websites for which creating, hosting, or making available material harmful to minors is in the regular course of the website's trade or business.
Verification methods
Gov ID, Transactional data
When LexLint raises it
publishes_adult_content
Read the law
official South Dakota Legislature bill page and text
Every line above is drawn from the primary source linked here, read on the date shown. This is a research summary, not legal advice.