Sponsors (2)
The bill creates a new federal protection and clearer legal definitions to help adults with certain disabilities seek justice for coerced intimate images, but it raises risks of medical-privacy exposure, potential wrongful prosecutions tied to diagnostic ambiguity, modest penalties, and added federal enforcement costs.
People with listed disabilities gain a federal criminal protection against being coerced into sending intimate images, creating a new legal remedy and recognition of this abuse.
The law extends federal jurisdiction to conduct involving the mail or interstate/foreign commerce, enabling victims to seek justice nationally and allowing coordinated enforcement across states.
The bill establishes specific statutory definitions (e.g., protected adult, harm, intimate visual depiction), which should improve prosecutorial clarity and consistency in applying the law.
Adults who communicate with people identified by medical classifications risk prosecution when diagnoses are ambiguous or contested, creating potential wrongful criminalization.
Referencing DSM/ICD medical classifications in the statute risks exposing medical information or prompting use of health records as evidence, raising medical privacy concerns for protected adults.
Criminal penalties are relatively narrow (maximum 1–2 years), which may be seen as insufficient deterrence or inadequate punishment for serious exploitation.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Introduced February 25, 2026 by Haley Stevens · Last progress February 25, 2026
Creates a new federal crime for using the mail or any facility of interstate or foreign commerce to knowingly persuade, induce, entice, or coerce an adult who, because of certain disabilities or cognitive conditions, cannot protect themselves, to send an intimate visual image with the intent to harm that person. The bill defines which medical or cognitive conditions qualify a person as a “protected adult,” defines “harm” broadly (physical, psychological, financial, reputational), and sets maximum penalties of up to 1 year in prison (first offense) and up to 2 years (repeat offenses), plus fines.