South Dakota

Subnational jurisdiction · as of 2026-07-15

South Dakota has required age verification for websites with content harmful to minors since July 2025, a law bolstered in public officials' view by the U.S. Supreme Court's June 2025 ruling in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton. App store age verification bills have failed twice: SB 180 was rejected in committee in 2025, and HB 1275 (2026) passed the House 50 to 17 but was defeated in a Senate committee in March 2026. South Dakota has not enacted a social media minor-access law or a design code law as of this date.

01

Instruments on record

HB 1053 (2025), age verification for websites containing material harmful to minors

In force

S.D. Codified Laws ch. 22-24 (new sections enacted by 2025 S.D. Laws, HB 1053)

Effective 2025-07-01 · Applies to private

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.

Age threshold18
Verification methodsgov id, transactional data
PenaltiesClass 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.
Enforcement bodySouth Dakota Attorney General; the act states it may not be construed as the basis for a new private right of action.
Private suitsno

Source: S.D. Codified Laws ch. 22-24 (new sections enacted by 2025 S.D. Laws, HB 1053)