SB 25-288
Fiscal Note
Legislative Council Staff
Nonpartisan Services for Colorado’s Legislature
SB 25-288: INTIMATE DIGITAL DEPICTIONS CRIM & CIVIL ACTIONS
Prime Sponsors:
Sen. Rodriguez
Published for: Senate Judiciary
Drafting number: LLS 25-0709
Fiscal Analyst:
Aaron Carpenter, 303-866-4918
aaron.carpenter@coleg.gov
Version: Initial Fiscal Note
Date: April 11, 2025
Fiscal note status: The fiscal note reflects the introduced bill.
Summary Information
Overview. The bill creates a civil right of action for intimate digital depictions and updates crimes around
exploitation of a child and posting a private image.
Types of impacts. The bill is projected to affect the following areas on an ongoing basis:
Minimal State Revenue
Minimal State Workload
Local Government
Appropriations. No appropriation is required.
Table 1
State Fiscal Impacts
Type of Impact
Budget Year
FY 2025-26
Out Year
FY 2026-27
State Revenue $0 $0
State Expenditures $0 $0
Transferred Funds $0 $0
Change in TABOR Refunds $0 $0
Change in State FTE 0.0 FTE 0.0 FTE
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April 11, 2025 SB 25-288
Summary of Legislation
The bill creates a civil right of action for intimate digital depictions and updates crimes around
exploitation of a child and posting a private image, as described below.
Civil Right of Action
The bill allows an individual depicted in an intimate image who has suffered harm from the
disclosure or threatened disclosure to sue the individual who disclosed or threatened to disclose
the picture if they individual knew or acted with reckless disregard for whether the depicted
individual:
did not consent to the disclosure;
would experience serve emotional distress; and
was identifiable.
The bill outlines what is required to establish consent, what cannot constitute a defense, who
can bring a case if the depicted person is less than 18 years of age, exceptions to liability,
establishing plaintiff privacy, and outlining remedies.
Updates to crimes
The bill updates several crimes as described below.
Sexual Exploitation of a Child
The bill eliminates the requirement for prosecutors to establish the identity of the alleged victim
when bringing a case for sexual exploitation of a child. It expands the definition of sexually
exploitative material under this crime to include realistic visual depiction by a computer. It also
establishes that it is not a defense that the defendant lacked knowledge of whether a realistic
visual depiction was created by digitization or computer-generated means.
Posting an Intimate Image for Harassment or Pecuniary Gain
Under current law, posting a private image for harassment or pecuniary gain is a class 1
misdemeanor when a person intends to harass, intimidate, coerce, or obtain pecuniary benefit
from a person by posting the image, without their consent or when the person should have
known the depicted person wanted the image to remain private, and the conduct results in
serious emotional distress.
Under the bill, it is a class 1 misdemeanor when a person intends to harass, intimidate, coerce, or
obtain pecuniary benefit from a person by disclosing the image without their consent, and the
actor knew or reasonably should have known the disclosure would cause physical, emotional,
reputational, or, for pecuniary gain, financial harm. It also expands these images to include
computer-generated images. It is a class 6 felony if the disclosure affected the conduct of an
administrative, legislative, or judicial proceeding of a government agency or posed an imminent
and serious threat to the depicted person’s or their family’s immediate safety and the person Page 3
April 11, 2025 SB 25-288
knew or reasonably should have known of the imminent and serious threat. The bill also
establishes exceptions to liability and outlines that the crime does not apply if the disclosure was
made in good faith to law enforcement while reporting a violation or to the court, a party, or a
fact finder in a criminal proceeding.
Comparable Crime Analysis
Legislative Council Staff is required to include certain information in the fiscal note for any bill
that creates a new crime, changes the classification of an existing crime, or creates a new factual
basis for an existing crime. The following section outlines crimes that are comparable to the
offense in this bill and discusses assumptions on future rates of criminal convictions resulting
from the bill.
Sexual Exploitation of a Child
This bill creates a new factual basis for the existing offense of sexual exploitation of a child by
applying computer-generated images to the crime. From FY 2021-22 to FY 2023-24,
930 persons have been convicted and sentenced for this offense. Of the persons convicted,
907 were male, 21 were female, and 2 did not have a gender identified. Demographically,
745 were White, 73 were Black/African American, 75 were Hispanic, 11 were Asian, 4 were
American Indian, 21 were classified as "Other," and 1 did not have a race identified.
Posting an Intimate Picture for Harassment
This bill creates a new factual basis for the existing offense of posting an intimate picture for
harassment by changing what the conduct needs to cause to be considered a crime. From
FY 2021-22 to FY 2023-24, 121 persons have been convicted and sentenced for this offense. Of
the persons convicted, 100 were male, and 21 were female. Demographically, 89 were White,
18 were Black/African American, 8 were Hispanic, 1 were Asian, 1 were American Indian, and
4 were classified as "Other".
Posting an Intimate Picture for Pecuniary Gain
This bill a new factual basis for the existing offense of posting an intimate picture for pecuniary
gain by changing what the conduct needs to cause to be considered a crime. From FY 2021-22
to FY 2023-24, two white males have been convicted and sentenced for this offense.
Assumptions
This analysis assumes that the changes to the above crimes are not going to significantly
increase the number of criminal cases filed. In addition, due to the specific standards in the bill
to bring a civil suit, the fiscal note assumes there will also be a minimal increase in civil cases
under the bill. Visit leg.colorado.gov/fiscalnotes for more information about criminal justice
costs in fiscal notes. Page 4
April 11, 2025 SB 25-288
State Revenue and Expenditures
Based on the assumptions above, this analysis assumes that there will be a minimal impact on
state revenue and expenditures. Under the bill, criminal fines and civil filing fees, which are
subject to TABOR, may increase by a minimal amount. Similarly, any increase in workload and
costs for the Judicial Department, including the trial courts, Division of Probation, and agencies
that provide representation to indigent persons, and to the Department of Corrections, is
assumed to be minimal and no change in appropriations is required.
Local Government
Similar to the state, it is expected that any workload or cost increase for district attorneys to
prosecute more offenses, or for county jails to imprison more individuals under the bill will be
minimal. District attorney offices and county jails are funded by counties.
Effective Date
The bill takes effect 90 days following adjournment of the General Assembly sine die, assuming
no referendum petition is filed, with the changes to the criminal offenses applying to offenses
committed or after the effective date.
State and Local Government Contacts
Corrections
District Attorneys
Judicial
The revenue and expenditure impacts in this fiscal note represent changes from current law under the bill for each
fiscal year. For additional information about fiscal notes, please visit the General Assembly website.