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Committee advances working group to study image-based sexual abuse; AG to serve as counsel, LRB suggested
Summary
The House Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee advanced HCR 93 and HR 85 to form a working group on image-based sexual abuse. The Attorney General offered legal assistance but suggested Legislative Reference Bureau research; the Commission on the Status of Women asked to expand scope to prevention and intervention.
Vice Chair Poepoe asked the committee to consider HCR 93 and HR 85, which would ask the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women to convene a working group and report back with recommendations to strengthen protections for survivors of image-based sexual abuse.
Deputy Attorney General Mark Tofte told the committee the Department of the Attorney General would be better positioned to serve as legal counsel to the commission rather than as an active working-group member. "If the intent of this resolution is to create a working group, the Department believes that they are better suited to assist the group not as an active member, but as already legal counsel for the commission," he said, offering to follow up on specific legal questions offline.
Yasmin Cheyne of the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women said the Commission supports the resolutions' intent but urged expanding the working group's scope "to include prevention and intervention strategies in addition to survivor protections," and asked that the Attorney General not be removed from the working group if the committee moves the measures forward. She also requested an amended reporting deadline (report before the regular session of 2028) and a working-group sunset date of Dec. 31, 2027.
Chris Coffelt, president of the Emoa Alliance, spoke in support and described the social harms of image-based abuse, citing national survey data and local incidents. "Image abuse digitizes and spreads degrading material 24/7," he said, urging lawmakers to take "a stand on the side of prevention and justice for survivors."
Committee members pressed the Attorney General and Commission on whether current statutes cover recent technology developments, including AI-generated images. The Attorney General offered to research prosecutorial avenues for specific scenarios and follow up, while the Commission said existing privacy statutes are often used but that statutes have not kept pace with technological advances.
At decision-making the committee adopted a recommendation to pass HCR 93 and HR 85 with amendments that reflect some of the Commission’s suggested changes and to replace active AG membership with LRB support while retaining AG counsel as appropriate. The committee recorded members voting in favor and noted two excused members.
