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Governor Healy signs H 4744 criminalizing nonconsensual sharing of explicit images and expanding coercive-control law
Summary
Governor Healy signed H 4744, An Act to Prevent Abuse and Exploitation, into law at a ceremonial signing. The law criminalizes nonconsensual sharing of explicit images, adds prohibitions aimed at deepfakes, expands the definition of abuse to include coercive control and creates juvenile diversion and education components.
Governor Healy signed H 4744, An Act to Prevent Abuse and Exploitation, into law at a bill-signing ceremony, saying the measure modernizes protections against image-based abuse and coercive conduct.
"We're here to sign an important bill, an act to prevent abuse and exploitation," Governor Healy said, summarizing key elements that include criminalizing the nonconsensual sharing of explicit images and expanding the definition of abuse to cover coercive control. She called the legislation "necessary and decisive steps to update, to modernize, and to strengthen laws to protect residents of this state."
The law bundles criminal and preventive tools. Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll praised survivors and advocates and stressed the statute’s educational components, saying, "It creates a diversion program for minors who share explicit images to teach them about the dangers of sexting." Driscoll also said the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) will be expected to encourage age-appropriate media-literacy instruction across grade levels.
Representative Mike Day, who led the conference committee, described how the bill clarifies existing criminal-harassment statutes to cover so-called revenge pornography and adds explicit prohibitions aimed at deepfake actions designed to harm someone. Day said the changes give district attorneys clearer authority to prosecute adults while setting a default of educational diversion for minors unless a district attorney determines a case is sufficiently egregious to pursue criminal charges.
Survivors invited to the ceremony framed the law as the product of years of advocacy. Shakira, introduced as a founding member of Together Rising Against Coercion Coalition and founder of Shakira's Story, urged belief in survivors’ lived experience and described systemic barriers that retraumatize people seeking help.
Caitlin Spencer, who identified herself as "a survivor of image based ****** abuse," told lawmakers she discovered two nonconsensual videos of herself in 2020 that had first been posted in 2010 and later reached "millions of views." She said her criminal case was dismissed and that the absence of a statutory remedy contributed to long-term harms, including diagnoses of PTSD, CPTSD, anxiety and depression. "Since my case was dismissed, my only justice would be this bill passing," Spencer said.
Officials at the ceremony repeatedly credited survivor testimony with moving the legislation forward. Speakers emphasized that the law’s mix of criminal penalties for adults, explicit prohibitions on manipulative technologies, and educational diversion for youth reflect both accountability and prevention goals.
The signing event concluded with thanks to legislators and advocates and an invitation to proceed with the ceremonial signing. No formal votes or amendments took place at the ceremony itself; the event recorded the administration’s signing of H 4744 into law and public testimony from advocates and survivors.
