Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that prohibits revenge porn and increases penalties.

Highlights:

• Prohibits revenge porn and amends the definition to include teen sexting and image-based sexual assault (Sec. 1).

• Amends the definition of abuse to include coercive control for the purposes of obtaining a restraining order (Sec. 1).

• Extends the statute of limitations for assault and battery on a family or household member or against someone with an active protective order from 6 years to 15 years (Sec. 1).

• Amends previous law from requiring minors found guilty to register as sex offenders to instead authorize them to commitment to the Department of Youth Services (DYS) and allows them to be diverted to an educational program in lieu of criminal punishment (Sec. 1).

• Specifies that the aforementiond educational program shall be created by the Attorney General in consultation with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), DYS, and the District Attorneys Association, to provide teenagers with information about the legal and nonlegal consequences of sexting, which would be made available to school districts (Sec. 1)

• Defines “coercive control”  as nonphysical form of abuse which includes a pattern of behavior, or a single act intended to threaten, intimated, harass, isolate, control, coerce or compel compliance of a family or household member that causes the family or household member to fear physical harm or to have a reduced sense of physical safety or autonomy (Sec. 1).

• Specifies that the provisions of this bill shall become effective immediately upon passage and approval by the governor (Sec. 2).

Full Bill Text