Require Age Verification for Online Platform Access

Scripture calls parents to train up their children in wisdom and to guard their hearts. That charge has never been easy, but the digital age has made it extraordinarily difficult. Children today can access platforms carrying adult content, predatory actors, and psychologically manipulative design with nothing more than a tap. HB1237 addresses this reality by requiring that online application stores, websites, and electronic services verify a user's age before granting access. It does not dictate what content may exist; it simply ensures that the doorway carries a checkpoint.

The American Council supports this bill because it reflects the proper ordering of family, church, and state. Government does not raise children. Parents do. But government has a legitimate and well-established role in creating the structural conditions that make responsible parenting possible. Age-restricted access to alcohol, tobacco, and adult entertainment venues has long been recognized as a valid exercise of that role. There is no principled reason the same logic should not extend to online platforms, particularly when the harms to minors are documented and severe.

This legislation is procedural in design but protective in effect. By requiring verified age credentials rather than restricting content outright, it avoids overreach while still producing a meaningful barrier between children and environments that were not built with their wellbeing in mind. Parents who wish to grant their children access retain the ability to do so. The bill empowers parental judgment rather than replacing it.

The unanimous committee passage of this bill reflects something important: protecting children online is not a partisan cause. It is a moral one. Families across South Dakota, regardless of background or affiliation, understand that the current default of unverified, unrestricted access to digital platforms is failing children. HB1237 corrects that default in a measured, targeted way. The American Council urges its full passage into law.