Porn streaming safe in South Dakota — for now

Senate leader vows to vet youth porn consumption after Senate kills age-verification measure

A conference committee of the Legislature meets to attempt to negotiate a compromise on a bill originally intended to require implementing age verification for pornography websites. (Austin Goss/The Dakota Scout)

PIERRE — Any laws requiring age verification before accessing online pornography in South Dakota will have to wait at least a year.

A measure that would have done that stalled out this week amid gridlock between the South Dakota House and Senate.

PREVIOUSLY: South Dakota lawmakers want to make it harder to watch porn on the internet

After initially clearing the House with nearly unanimous approval, a Senate committee last week narrowly killed House Bill 1257, citing different constitutional, technical and enforcement concerns. And though there were enough senators backing the legislation to bring it back to life through a series of procedural moves, a conference committee of House and Senate members charged with considering revisions couldn’t strike a deal.

“I come here as a ‘no,’ not because of the constitutionality,” Sen. Dean Wink said during the conference committee’s hearing. “My disagreement is with the enforceability of it.”

POINT: South Dakota senators failed to protect children from pornography

COUNTERPOINT: Age verification bill will not keep your kids safer, will risk privacy