Sponsors (19)
The bill strengthens criminal tools and penalties to protect children and deter the use of real or fabricated sexual images for intimidation or extortion, but it expands criminalization in ways that raise significant risks of wrongful prosecution, privacy and fiscal costs, and unequal impacts on marginalized people.
Children and other victims: stronger legal protection and likely reduced online sexual coercion because threatening to distribute child sexual abuse material (including fabricated or non-existent images) is explicitly prosecutable and penalties are increased for using images to intimidate or extort.
Law enforcement and federal prosecutors: improved ability to charge and deter extortionate or intimidating uses of sexual depictions because the bill criminalizes bluff threats and provides clearer federal sentencing authority for aggravated conduct.
Families and communities: greater deterrence against using child sexual depictions for intimidation or extortion due to substantially higher federal penalties.
People accused of making threats (including defendants and others): increased risk of wrongful prosecution and chilling of speech because criminal liability can attach even when no real image exists and the line between a punishable 'threat' and protected speech may be unclear.
Privacy and taxpayers: prosecutions may require expanded electronic surveillance and investigative resources, raising government costs and the risk of privacy intrusions.
Taxpayers and families: longer maximum sentences will likely increase prison populations and incarceration-related costs (prison, supervision, reentry), creating higher fiscal burdens.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Makes threats to distribute sexual images of minors a federal crime even without real images, and adds a 10-year prison enhancement when images are knowingly used to intimidate, coerce, extort, or cause major emotional distress.
Introduced December 9, 2025 by Charles Ernest Grassley · Last progress December 9, 2025
Makes it a federal crime to threaten to distribute sexual images of minors even when no actual image exists, and raises prison sentences by 10 years when someone knowingly uses such images (or claims to) to intimidate, coerce, extort, or cause substantial emotional distress. It updates several child-pornography and related federal criminal statutes, clarifies prosecution rules for threats and attempts, and adds survivability language if part of the law is found unconstitutional.