84R14542 JRR-F
By: Raymond H.B. No. 3797
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the prosecution of the offense of online solicitation
of a minor.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 33.021(a), Penal Code, is amended by
adding Subdivisions (1-a) and (1-b) to read as follows:
(1-a) "Patently offensive" has the meaning assigned by
Section 43.21.
(1-b) "Sexual conduct" has the meaning assigned by
Section 43.25.
SECTION 2. Section 33.021(b), Penal Code, is amended to
read as follows:
(b) A person who is 17 years of age or older commits an
offense if, with the intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire
of any person, the person, over the Internet, by electronic mail or
text message or other electronic message service or system, or
through a commercial online service, intentionally:
(1) expresses to [communicates in a sexually explicit
manner with] a minor that the actor intends to engage in sexual
contact, sexual intercourse, or deviate sexual intercourse with the
minor; or
(2) sends [distributes sexually explicit material to]
a minor a communication that:
(A) the average person, applying contemporary
community standards, would find that taken as a whole appeals to a
prurient interest harmful to minors;
(B) depicts or describes patently offensive
representations or descriptions of sexual conduct; and
(C) taken as a whole, lacks serious literary,
artistic, political, and scientific value.
SECTION 3. The change in law made by this Act applies only
to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act.
An offense committed before the effective date of this Act is
governed by the law in effect on the date the offense was committed,
and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose. For
purposes of this section, an offense was committed before the
effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurred
before that date.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2015.