Senate Judiciary considers bill to criminalize online grooming, address AI-enabled child exploitation

The Montana Senate Judiciary Committee heard House Bill 82, a Department of Justice-requested bill lawmakers say is designed to modernize state law for online grooming, sextortion and emerging risks from artificial intelligence.

Representative Kathy Love, sponsor of HB 82, said the measure "creates specific offenses for online grooming, it addresses the AI generated exploitation materials, it enables proactive law enforcement intervention so they can act sooner and it establishes clear penalties for digital exploitation." She described the bill as a response to a growing national and state-level rise in online reports involving children.

Department of Justice and law-enforcement testimony

Alex Sturhan, director of external affairs for the Montana Department of Justice, and Celine Koepke, an assistant attorney general in the DOJ’s Appellate Services Bureau, outlined why the department requested the bill. Koepke said the text inserts language to permit a law enforcement officer acting undercover to stand in the place of a real child victim for certain online crimes. "That language has been added anytime a child could potentially be victimized online," she told the committee, adding the change is intended to address inconsistent appellate rulings that have produced disparate sentences for offenders in cases involving very young alleged victims.

Brian (Bridal) Cassidy, commander of the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force at the Montana Department of Justice, described operational pressures on investigators. "In Montana, we received over 3,000 cyber tips last year," Cassidy said, and added that the volume has grown sharply from roughly 200 tips annually when he started in 2014. Cassidy told the committee that sextortion and AI-generated explicit images—sometimes created by pulling images from social media and altering them with AI—have increased the task force workload.

Koepke explained one motivation for the statute: higher mandatory penalties, such as the so-called Jessica’s Law sentences that apply when victims are younger than 12, require clarity about whether undercover operations and other evidentiary approaches are allowed in those cases. Koepke said the bill also adds the term "observation" to ways the state can prove sexual conduct and includes technical updates across several statutes.

Public supporters and corrections estimate

Supporters who spoke included child-protection advocates and law-enforcement groups. Patrick Webb of the Montana Family Foundation and Dan Smith of the Montana Police Protective Association urged passage. The Department of Corrections estimated the law’s enactment would yield about three additional incarcerations per year; Representative Love cited that estimate during her closing remarks as part of the bill’s public-safety rationale.

Questions, potential amendments

Committee members asked about juvenile offenders, the bill’s reach into platforms and companies, and whether federal immunities limit recourse against technology platforms. Koepke and Cassidy said some aspects are constrained by federal law and platform practices. Senator Vinton asked whether minors who offend online are handled differently; Koepke answered that youth-court procedures and transfers to adult court remain statutory distinctions and that the bill primarily targets adult offenders.

Members also discussed a technical drafting suggestion: on page 8 of the draft, committee members proposed changing references to "sexual act" or "sexual act" wording to "sexual conduct" for consistency with existing statute language; Representative Love said she would be open to an amendment if DOJ supported it.

Why it matters: HB 82 updates criminal statutes to reflect how predators use modern communications and AI to target children, expands investigative tools for law enforcement, and adjusts evidence and sentencing language to close appellate gaps. The bill drew broad pro-law-enforcement support in committee; no opponents were recorded in the hearing transcript provided.

Ending: The committee closed the hearing on HB 82 after testimony from DOJ, law-enforcement commanders, advocates and corrections officials; committee staff and bill sponsors indicated willingness to accept technical changes suggested during the hearing.