Senate panel advances bills creating new child-obscenity offenses, adjusting registry removal rules

A Senate Judiciary Committee subcommittee on [date not specified] advanced two bills that create new criminal offenses for obscene visual depictions and for morphed images of identifiable minors and that amend procedures on requesting removal from the state sex-offender registry.

The measures would make the knowing production, distribution or possession with intent to distribute of obscene visual depictions of child sexual abuse a felony punishable by two to 10 years in prison and would place a person convicted under the proposed code section on the registry as a tier 1 offender, according to committee staff member Mara (staff member). Mara said the bill also would make knowing possession of an obscene visual representation a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The bills establish that a minor charged for a first offense under the new statutes would be handled in family court as a misdemeanor and, if adjudicated delinquent, would not be required to register. The measures also carve out an exception for employees of law enforcement, the attorney general’s office and the Department of Corrections when they possess the materials in their official capacity, including for discovery responses, Mara said.

A related provision adopted as an amendment on the Senate floor last year would allow tier 1 and tier 2 offenders who have been on the registry 15 or 25 years, respectively, to request removal; the bills clarify that those who were added to the registry retroactively after an incident decades earlier may also request removal once an active sentence of supervision has terminated and the registry period has been satisfied, committee staff said.

Senators pressed staff on several practical points. "How do you prove an AI image? I'm lost," Senator Cash asked. Mara replied investigators would have to establish the subject's age through the investigation and that a court would require proof that the depiction clearly showed an underage person.

Senator Mason asked whether mere receipt of forbidden material could trigger a felony. Committee discussion noted that the bills punish knowing possession with intent to distribute and production or distribution; Mara and senators debated how receipt and passive viewing would be handled in investigations and prosecutions.

Senators also questioned statutory wording on when time served counts toward eligibility to request removal from the registry. Mara clarified that the statutory language counts 15 (tier 1) or 25 (tier 2) years from the date of discharge from the sentence, including any period of supervision such as parole or probation, meaning time behind bars is not separately counted toward the post-discharge registry period, staff said.

The subcommittee unanimously moved the bills forward with technical amendments to correct scrivener errors and to align statutory cross-references. The committee approved the technical amendments and then voted for favorable reports on both measures, with senators indicating no opposition during voice votes.

Both bills also add or clarify definitions, including expanding material definitions to cover computer-generated images and defining the phrase "identifiable minor" for morphed-image provisions; they assign morphed-image offenses to tier 1 on the registry while retaining traditional first-, second- and third-degree sexual exploitation offenses as tier 2, committee staff said.

The bills were described by supporters as establishing criminal offenses that do not currently exist in state law and as protecting children by creating a statutory baseline for prosecuting AI-generated or morphed images.

The measures will move forward to the full Senate docket for further action.