The South Australian Government is "sneaking" through laws that would allow authorities to force users to hand over their phone and computer passwords during investigations into criminal offences, according to the Greens.

Greens MLC Mark Parnell said the laws, currently before the state's Upper House, were attached to measures that would further crack down on streaming child exploitation material.

But he believes that the latest measures would also allow a magistrate to give police the power to force a person to unlock their device upon suspicion it held evidence of a serious offence such as fraud, drug dealing or cyber bullying.

That would be regardless of whether the device was protected by a password, a fingerprint scanner or facial recognition software.

The legislation would also make it an offence to wipe the protected data, through the use of software like Apple's Find my iPhone, before police could gain access to it.

People would be risking five years behind bars if they refuse to comply with a court order to give police access.

"The Government is being a little bit sneaky in mixing these laws in with other laws that relate to child exploitation material," he said.

"I really think this is a very important civil liberties issue that should be subject to a full debate in the community, rather than being rushed through parliament in the last couple sitting days before an election.

"I'm not sure that people would be comfortable with a magistrate hearing one side of the case, ordering someone to hand all that material over, and the penalty for not handing it over is up to five years in jail," Mr Parnell said.

He said the Greens would find the laws more palatable if they only related to child exploitation material.

In response, the Government maintained that the laws were a "timely measure to support the investigation and prosecution of child sexual abuse and other crimes".

When he introduced the legislation, Attorney-General John Rau said it was not unlike a traditional search warrant.

"The test for a magistrate to make an order to require access is on the familiar and well-established standard of reasonable suspicion," he told Parliament.

"This accords with many other powers of search and seizure.

"While the notion of compelling access to protected computer or online material may be perceived by some as undermining important considerations of privacy and confidentiality, it is a timely measure to support the investigation and prosecution of child sexual abuse and other modern crimes."

But Mr Parnell argued the search powers go too far.

"We know that journalists sometimes go to jail for not disclosing their sources, now they could go to jail for five years for not handing their phones over to authorities," he said.

He predicted the law would still pass through Parliament based on what he had heard from other MPs.