By: Dale, Moody, Fallon H.B. No. 1810
(Senate Sponsor - Buckingham)
(In the Senate - Received from the House May 10, 2017;
May 10, 2017, read first time and referred to Committee on Criminal
Justice; May 17, 2017, reported favorably by the following vote:
Yeas 8, Nays 0; May 17, 2017, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the creation of the offense of possession or promotion
of lewd visual material depicting a child.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subchapter B, Chapter 43, Penal Code, is amended
by adding Section 43.262 to read as follows:
Sec. 43.262. POSSESSION OR PROMOTION OF LEWD VISUAL
MATERIAL DEPICTING CHILD. (a) In this section:
(1) "Promote" and "sexual conduct" have the meanings
assigned by Section 43.25.
(2) "Visual material" has the meaning assigned by
Section 43.26.
(b) A person commits an offense if the person knowingly
possesses, accesses with intent to view, or promotes visual
material that:
(1) depicts the lewd exhibition of the genitals or
pubic area of an unclothed, partially clothed, or clothed child who
is younger than 18 years of age at the time the visual material was
created;
(2) appeals to the prurient interest in sex; and
(3) has no serious literary, artistic, political, or
scientific value.
(c) An offense under this section is a state jail felony,
except that the offense is:
(1) a felony of the third degree if it is shown on the
trial of the offense that the person has been previously convicted
one time of an offense under this section or Section 43.26; and
(2) a felony of the second degree if it is shown on the
trial of the offense that the person has been previously convicted
two or more times of an offense under this section or Section 43.26.
(d) It is not a defense to prosecution under this section
that the depicted child consented to the creation of the visual
material.
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2017.
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