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Senate committee hears bill to increase penalties for online sextortion after 16-year-old’s death
Summary
The Minnesota Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee heard testimony on Senate File 281, a proposal to increase penalties when coercion tied to nonconsensual dissemination of private images leads to severe harm or death; the committee laid the bill over pending fiscal analysis and further information.
Senate File 281, introduced by Senator Dustin Lang, would add a cross-reference to Minnesota’s coercion statute to increase penalties when coercion tied to nonconsensual dissemination of private images results in great bodily harm or death.
The bill was presented at the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee on March 3, 2025, where Senator Lang said the measure was prompted by a local 16‑year‑old who took his life after online blackmail. "It's blackmail is what it is," Lang said, adding that the bill “provides an avenue for the state to prosecute these individuals. It provides a penalty.”
Jamie Bremseth, a mental‑health professional from Olivia and the boy’s mother, testified about her son’s death in December 2021 after a person posing as another teen on Instagram and Snapchat coerced him into sending images and then threatened to distribute them. "My son's life mattered," Bremseth said. She described the rapid escalation that began with a grooming-style conversation and ended in suicide hours later.
Committee counsel and staff pointed members to the specific statutory language affected: the bill would amend Minnesota Statute 609.27 (coercion) and create a cross‑reference to the nonconsensual dissemination statute at 617.261. Committee staff noted that a fiscal note was expected because any penalty increases could raise detention and Department of Corrections costs; the bill also includes a public‑awareness campaign without a specific appropriation. The chair moved to lay the bill on the table pending those analyses.
No formal vote on passage occurred; the committee laid SF 281 on the table for further consideration.
Ending: The committee did not act to advance SF 281 to the Senate floor at the hearing. Members asked staff to produce a fiscal analysis of potential corrections impacts and to advise on an appropriation amount for the bill’s public‑awareness component.
