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Law / United States / South Dakota

Computer-generated child pornography ban (SB 79, 2024)

SDCL §§ 22-24A-2(5), 22-24A-35 to 22-24A-37 (S.L. 2024, ch. 87)

In force since .

An AI prohibited practices rule binding public and private bodies.

Obligation class
Prohibition
Audit expectation
none
Setting the rule reaches
General

What it requires

  • Do not create, cause the creation of, knowingly permit the creation of, possess, sell, or distribute a visual depiction of a minor engaged in a prohibited sexual act, including a depiction of an individual indistinguishable from an actual minor created using artificial intelligence or other computer technology.
  • Treat an AI system or product capable of generating a depiction of an identifiable minor, or of an individual made to appear as a minor, engaged in sexual conduct as carrying the same criminal exposure as an authentic photograph; there is no synthetic-content or AI-generated-output exemption.
  • Manufacturing carries the highest exposure (Class 2 felony, mandatory minimum ten years), distributing the next highest (Class 3 felony, mandatory minimum five years), and possessing the lowest (Class 4 felony, mandatory minimum one year).

These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.

In the frameworks

NIST AI RMF
  • MAP 3.3Targeted application scope is specified and documented based on the system’s capability, established context, and AI system categorization.
NIST AI 600-1
MIT mitigations Draft
  • 1.5Safety Decision Frameworks
  • 3.3Access Management
FINOS AIGF
ETSI EN 304 223
  • 5.1.2-1Business need and security risks written down and assessed before deciding to build an AI system.
  • 5.1.4-5End-users told which uses of the system are prohibited.

Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law

Identifiers refer to ETSI EN 304 223 V2.1.1 (2025-12), © ETSI 2025, all rights reserved. ETSI owns the standard; no ETSI text (titles or sentences) is reproduced here. The standard is free to download from ETSI.

If you get it wrong

Criminal exposureYes

Criminal exposure note

Possessing computer-generated child pornography is a Class 4 felony (up to ten years and a $20,000 fine) with a mandatory minimum sentence of one year for a first offense and five years for a second or subsequent offense (SDCL § 22-24A-35). Distributing is a Class 3 felony (up to fifteen years and a $30,000 fine) with a mandatory minimum of five years, rising to ten years for a second or subsequent offense (§ 22-24A-36). Manufacturing is a Class 2 felony (up to twenty-five years and a $50,000 fine) with a mandatory minimum of ten years, rising to twenty years for a second or subsequent offense (§ 22-24A-37).

Penalty structure

Ceiling for manufacturing, the most severe of the three offenses (Class 2 felony); possessing and distributing carry lower caps and each offense also carries a mandatory minimum prison term.

Rule
Fixed only
As of
Currency
USD
Fixed cap
50,000

What it makes you log

Logging duty

Sections 22-24A-35 to 22-24A-37 create the possession, distribution, and manufacturing offenses and state their penalties. Neither those sections, the definitions in Section 22-24A-2, nor the civil-damages provision at Section 22-24A-7 requires a log, record, or documented process of any kind.

Kind
None
As of

What this law does

Drafted with AI

Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page. How this site is made

Research summary

Legal information, not legal advice. This is LexLint's own research summary of a public legal source, and it creates no attorney-client relationship. For decisions that matter, consult qualified counsel in the relevant jurisdiction. About LexLint

SDCL § 22-24A-2(5) defines computer-generated child pornography to include a visual depiction of an actual minor altered to show a prohibited sexual act, an actual adult altered to appear as a minor engaged in a prohibited sexual act, or an individual indistinguishable from an actual minor created by the use of artificial intelligence or other computer technology capable of processing and interpreting specific data inputs to create a visual depiction.

Sections 22-24A-35 to 22-24A-37 were enacted by SB 79, signed by the Governor on . Possessing computer-generated child pornography is a Class 4 felony with a mandatory minimum sentence of one year, on the same terms as possessing a depiction of an actual minor. Distributing it is a Class 3 felony with a mandatory minimum of five years.

Manufacturing it is a Class 2 felony with a mandatory minimum of ten years, and there is no exemption for synthetic or AI-generated output in any of the three offenses. SDCL § 22-24A-7's civil-damages provision, unamended since 2014, arms a plaintiff for conduct proscribed by "§§ 22-24A-1 to 22-24A-20", a range that does not by its own terms reach §§ 22-24A-35 to -37; no source located addresses whether a court would read the civil-damages chapter to reach the successor sections.

When LexLint raises it

When your app profile says your app generates images with AI, generates video with AI or publishes adult content.

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