Sponsors (3)
The bill strengthens federal criminal tools, sentencing, and program support to deter and punish online threats, sextortion, and coercion of minors — improving protections for children — but expands federal criminal exposure, raises constitutional and fairness concerns, increases government costs, and creates implementation and scope risks.
Children and minors gain stronger federal protection because threats to distribute sexual images and interstate/online coercion are criminalized, giving prosecutors clearer tools to deter and punish exploitation and reduce emotional and physical harm.
Victims (including children) will likely see sentences that better reflect modern, technology-enabled harms — guidelines will account for multiple victims, production/distribution, and harms like suicide, producing tougher penalties aligned with victim impact.
Law enforcement and prosecutors get clearer statutory authority to pursue interstate and online threats, conspiracies, and attempts (including sextortion), simplifying prosecutions of online exploitation schemes.
Defendants (including juveniles) face broader federal exposure and much higher penalties — including life sentences for coercing minors to cause death and up to 10 additional years for sextortion — increasing criminal-justice involvement and long-term incarceration costs.
Free-speech and due-process risks: criminalizing threats (including bluffs) and allowing consideration of uncharged or unconvicted conduct at sentencing could chill lawful expression and rely on unproven allegations, inviting constitutional and fairness challenges.
Higher government and taxpayer costs: expanded investigations, prosecutions, longer incarcerations, expanded recordkeeping, and increased juvenile case involvement will raise costs for DOJ, courts, corrections, schools, and local agencies.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Creates new federal crimes and raises penalties for threats, coercion, and online exploitation of minors; directs sentencing-guideline updates to increase penalties.
Introduced December 15, 2025 by Laurel Lee · Last progress February 26, 2026
Makes multiple changes to federal criminal law to strengthen penalties and create new offenses for threats, coercion, and online exploitation of minors. It criminalizes threatening to distribute sexual images of a minor (including when no image exists), creates a new offense for coercing a minor to commit suicide, kill, injure, or burn, directs the U.S. Sentencing Commission to revisit guidelines for child-exploitation offenses, and raises maximum penalties for using sexual images of minors to intimidate, coerce, extort, or cause substantial emotional distress.