PIERRE, S.D. — The South Dakota House Judiciary Committee last week voted unanimously to endorse the state’s copycat version of the age verification legislation being sponsored around the country by anti-porn religious conservative activists, which the bill’s backers have described as part of a national campaign to fight online “filth.”
HB 1257 was introduced by Republican Rep. Bethany Soye, who cited a 2017 resolution recognizing “the public health crisis created by pornography in this state,” claiming without any scientific backing that adult content is an “epidemic that is harming the people of our state and our country as a whole.”
From 2016 until the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, an actual health crisis, anti-porn activists and politicians passed a series of proclamations in red states, claiming the existence of a supposed “porn epidemic.”
Soye cited this largely debunked notion, then noted that eight states have already passed laws along the same lines as her proposal, local news station KELO reported.
The committee session was dominated by religious conservatives, and a representative of the well-funded, pro-censorship national right-wing lobby group the American Principles Project was invited to the hearing to endorse the bill.
Republican Rep. Scott Odenbach openly acknowledged that HB 1257 is “part of a national movement pushing back on what he described as ‘this kind of filth,’” KELO reported.
Republican Rep. Rebecca Reimer expressed satisfaction that a similar measure in North Carolina had resulted in Pornhub blocking access to its site for all users regardless of age.
“It seems to be working,” Reimer stated.
Soye, whose pre-politics background is in banking regulation, recently told South Dakota’s religious conservative lobby Family Voice, also known as Family Heritage Alliance, that she considers the entire adult industry “predatory,” claiming without evidence, “This multi-billion-dollar monster is targeting our kids.”
Main Image: South Dakota State Rep. Bethany Soye.