Sponsors (15)
Introduced February 11, 2025 by Jefferson Van Drew · Last progress February 11, 2025
The bill enhances federal criminal and financial remedies to protect children and adults from nonconsensual distribution of intimate images, but does so in a way that creates legal uncertainty, compliance costs, and risks of overbroad enforcement that may chill speech and burden platforms.
Children and teens are better protected because distributing nude visual depictions of a minor with intent to abuse, humiliate, or arouse is a federal felony (up to 3 years).
Adults who have intimate images shared without consent gain stronger criminal protection because distribution of recognizably identifiable intimate images is a federal offense (penalties up to 2 years), reducing psychological, financial, and reputational harms.
Victims have a clearer federal pathway to monetary recovery and deterrence through restitution and court-ordered forfeiture of materials and proceeds used in violations.
The statute's recognizability and 'public concern' tests create legal uncertainty about what distributions are lawful, leaving ordinary people and platforms unsure when federal criminal exposure exists.
Platforms may face substantial compliance and content-moderation costs and may over-remove lawful content to avoid liability, impacting user experience and expression across large numbers of users.
Adults who shared intimate images that were partly consensual could still face federal criminal charges if a court finds no reasonable expectation of privacy or that distribution caused harm, risking imprisonment up to 2 years.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Adds a new federal crime for certain activities involving intimate visual depictions of adults, defines covered services and terms, and sets mens rea, penalties, exceptions, and enforcement rules.
Creates a new federal criminal offense that targets certain activities involving intimate visual images of people who were adults when the images were made. The law defines key terms (like “intimate visual depiction,” types of online services, and who counts as a minor), and adds rules about culpability, penalties, exceptions, jurisdiction, and enforcement to the federal criminal code. The measure also adopts existing statutory definitions for several communications and internet service categories and for sexually explicit conduct, and it sets out a separate definition for depictions of nude minors that are not sexually explicit. The text does not specify dollar amounts, effective dates, or detailed penalty amounts in the excerpt provided.