Sponsors (15)
The bill expands federal remedies and criminal penalties to better protect victims of nonconsensual intimate-image distribution and strengthens child protections while preserving platform immunity in most cases — but it creates compliance costs for platforms, raises enforcement and prosecutorial challenges, and leaves room for government exceptions and forfeiture practices that could limit victims' remedies or raise due-process concerns.
Victims of nonconsensual intimate photography (especially women, young adults, and students) gain a federal civil remedy and a new criminal avenue to hold perpetrators accountable for photographing or recording them in private without consent.
Online platforms and intermediary services retain broad liability protections unless they intentionally solicit or predominantly distribute nonconsensual intimate images, preserving general intermediary immunity while targeting bad actors.
Victims can recover money and see mandatory forfeiture of distributed material and proceeds applied—expanding restitution and financial recovery options after conviction.
Victims may lose remedies when government actors capture or disseminate images because investigatory and intelligence exceptions could be interpreted broadly, narrowing victims' recourse against government activity.
Online service providers and platforms could face increased compliance costs and legal risk when moderating or hosting borderline content, potentially raising operational burdens for platforms large and small.
Proving intent to cause harm for criminal penalties (up to 2 years) places a burden on prosecutors that may lead to uneven enforcement, selective charging, or difficulty securing convictions in many cases.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Makes intentionally creating, distributing, or advertising intimate images of another adult without consent a federal crime and sets definitions and investigatory exceptions.
Official title: To provide that it is unlawful to knowingly distribute private intimate visual depictions with reckless disregard for the individual's lack of consent to the distribution, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 11, 2025 by Jefferson Van Drew · Last progress February 11, 2025
Creates a new federal crime for intentionally creating, distributing, or advertising intimate visual depictions of a person 18 or older without that person’s consent, while preserving exemptions for lawful law-enforcement, corrections, and intelligence activities. The bill defines covered services and key terms (like “intimate visual depiction,” “communications service,” and “sexually explicit conduct”), makes forfeiture available where applicable, and supplements existing federal video-voyeurism law rather than amending it. The measure targets nonconsensual sharing of sexual or nude images by establishing a standalone statute, sets out investigatory exceptions, and borrows existing federal definitions for minors and sexually explicit conduct to align with related criminal statutes. It does not specify funding, civil remedies, or changes to other listed statutes' text.