II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 516
To provide that it is unlawful to knowingly distribute private intimate visual
depictions with reckless disregard for the individual’s lack of consent
to the distribution, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY11, 2025
Ms. K
LOBUCHAR(for herself and Mr. CORNYN) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To provide that it is unlawful to knowingly distribute private
intimate visual depictions with reckless disregard for the
individual’s lack of consent to the distribution, and for
other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Stopping Harmful 4
Image Exploitation and Limiting Distribution Act of 5
2025’’ or the ‘‘SHIELD Act of 2023’’. 6
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SEC. 2. CERTAIN ACTIVITIES RELATING TO INTIMATE VIS-1
UAL DEPICTIONS. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Chapter 88 of title 18, United 3
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol-4
lowing: 5
‘‘§ 1802. Certain activities relating to intimate visual 6
depictions 7
‘‘(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 8
‘‘(1) C
OMMUNICATIONS SERVICE .—The term 9
‘communications service’ means— 10
‘‘(A) a service provided by a person that is 11
a common carrier, as that term is defined in 12
section 3 of the Communications Act of 1934 13
(47 U.S.C. 153), insofar as the person is acting 14
as a common carrier; 15
‘‘(B) an electronic communication service, 16
as that term is defined in section 2510; 17
‘‘(C) an information service, as that term 18
is defined in section 3 of the Communications 19
Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 153); and 20
‘‘(D) an interactive computer service, as 21
that term is defined in section 230(f) of the 22
Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 23
230(f)). 24
‘‘(2) I
NFORMATION CONTENT PROVIDER .—The 25
term ‘information content provider’ has the meaning 26
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•S 516 IS
given that term in section 230(f) of the Communica-1
tions Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230(f)). 2
‘‘(3) I
NTIMATE VISUAL DEPICTION .—The term 3
‘intimate visual depiction’ means any visual depic-4
tion (as that term is defined in section 2256(5)) of 5
an individual— 6
‘‘(A) who has attained 18 years of age at 7
the time the intimate visual depiction is cre-8
ated; 9
‘‘(B) who is recognizable to a third party 10
from the intimate image itself or information or 11
text displayed in connection with the intimate 12
image itself or information or text displayed in 13
connection with the intimate image; and 14
‘‘(C)(i) who is depicted engaging in sexu-15
ally explicit conduct; or 16
‘‘(ii) whose genitals, anus, pubic area, or 17
female nipple are unclothed and visible. 18
‘‘(4) M
INOR.—The term ‘minor’ has the mean-19
ing given that term in section 2256. 20
‘‘(5) S
EXUALLY EXPLICIT CONDUCT .—The term 21
‘sexually explicit conduct’ has the meaning given 22
that term in section 2256(2)(A). 23
‘‘(6) V
ISUAL DEPICTION OF A NUDE MINOR .— 24
The term ‘visual depiction of a nude minor’ means 25
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any visual depiction (as that term is defined in sec-1
tion 2256(5)) of an individual who is recognizable by 2
an individual other than the depicted individual from 3
the intimate image itself or information or text dis-4
played in connection with the intimate image who 5
was under 18 years of age at the time the visual de-6
piction was created in which the actual anus, geni-7
tals, or pubic area, or post-pubescent female nipple, 8
of the minor are unclothed, visible, and displayed in 9
a manner that does not constitute sexually explicit 10
conduct. 11
‘‘(b) O
FFENSES.— 12
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in sub-13
section (d), it shall be unlawful to knowingly mail, 14
or to knowingly distribute using any means or facil-15
ity of interstate or foreign commerce or affecting 16
interstate or foreign commerce, an intimate visual 17
depiction of an individual— 18
‘‘(A) that was obtained or created under 19
circumstances in which the actor knew or rea-20
sonably should have known the individual de-21
picted had a reasonable expectation of privacy; 22
‘‘(B) where what is depicted was not volun-23
tarily exposed by the individual in a public or 24
commercial setting; 25
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‘‘(C) where what is depicted is not a mat-1
ter of public concern; and 2
‘‘(D) if the distribution— 3
‘‘(i) is intended to cause harm; or 4
‘‘(ii) causes harm, including psycho-5
logical, financial, or reputational harm, to 6
the individual depicted. 7
For purposes of this paragraph, the fact that the 8
subject of the depiction consented to the creation of 9
the depiction shall not establish that that person 10
consented to its distribution. 11
‘‘(2) I
NVOLVING MINORS.—Except as provided 12
in subsection (d), it shall be unlawful to knowingly 13
mail, or to knowingly distribute using any means or 14
facility of interstate or foreign commerce or affect-15
ing interstate or foreign commerce, a visual depic-16
tion of a nude minor with intent to abuse, humiliate, 17
harass, or degrade the minor, or to arouse or gratify 18
the sexual desire of any person. 19
‘‘(c) P
ENALTY.— 20
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.— 21
‘‘(A) V
ISUAL DEPICTION OF A NUDE 22
MINOR.—Any person who violates subsection 23
(b)(2) shall be fined under this title, imprisoned 24
not more than 3 years, or both. 25
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‘‘(B) INTIMATE VISUAL DEPICTION .—Any 1
person who violates subsection (b)(1) shall be 2
fined under this title, imprisoned for not more 3
than 2 years, or both. 4
‘‘(2) F
ORFEITURE.— 5
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The court, in impos-6
ing a sentence on any person convicted of a vio-7
lation involving intimate visual depictions or 8
visual depictions of a nude minor under this 9
section, or convicted of a conspiracy of a viola-10
tion involving intimate visual depictions or vis-11
ual depictions of a nude minor under this sec-12
tion, shall order, in addition to any other sen-13
tence imposed and irrespective of any provision 14
of State law, that such person forfeit to the 15
United States— 16
‘‘(i) any material distributed in viola-17
tion of this section; 18
‘‘(ii) such person’s interest in prop-19
erty, real or personal, constituting or de-20
rived from any gross proceeds of such vio-21
lation, or any property traceable to such 22
property, obtained or retained directly or 23
indirectly as a result of such violation; and 24
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‘‘(iii) any personal property of the 1
person used, or intended to be used, in any 2
manner or part, to commit or to facilitate 3
the commission of such violation. 4
‘‘(B) P
ROCEDURES.—Section 413 of the 5
Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 853), 6
with the exception of subsections (a) and (d), 7
applies to the criminal forfeiture of property 8
pursuant to subparagraph (A). 9
‘‘(3) R
ESTITUTION.—Restitution shall be avail-10
able as provided in section 2264 of this title. 11
‘‘(d) E
XCEPTIONS.— 12
‘‘(1) L
AW ENFORCEMENT , LAWFUL REPORTING , 13
AND OTHER LEGAL PROCEEDINGS .—This section— 14
‘‘(A) does not prohibit any lawfully author-15
ized investigative, protective, or intelligence ac-16
tivity of a law enforcement agency of the 17
United States, a State, or a political subdivision 18
of a State, or of an intelligence agency of the 19
United States; and 20
‘‘(B) shall not apply to distributions that 21
are made reasonably and in good faith— 22
‘‘(i) to report unlawful or unsolicited 23
activity or in pursuance of a legal or pro-24
fessional or other lawful obligation; 25
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‘‘(ii) to seek support or help with re-1
spect to the receipt of an unsolicited inti-2
mate visual depiction; 3
‘‘(iii) relating to an individual who 4
possesses or distributes a visual depiction 5
of himself or herself engaged in nudity or 6
sexually explicit conduct; 7
‘‘(iv) to assist the depicted individual; 8
‘‘(v) for legitimate medical, scientific, 9
or educational purposes; or 10
‘‘(vi) as part of a document produc-11
tion or filing associated with a legal pro-12
ceeding. 13
‘‘(2) S
ERVICE PROVIDERS.—This section shall 14
not apply to any provider of a communications serv-15
ice with regard to content provided by another infor-16
mation content provider unless the provider of the 17
communications service intentionally solicits, or 18
knowingly and predominantly distributes, such con-19
tent. 20
‘‘(e) T
HREATS.—Any person who intentionally 21
threatens to commit an offense under subsection (b) for 22
the purpose of intimidation, coercion, extortion, or to cre-23
ate mental distress shall be punished as provided in sub-24
section (c). 25
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‘‘(f) E XTRATERRITORIALITY.—There is 1
extraterritorial Federal jurisdiction over an offense under 2
this section if the defendant or the depicted individual is 3
a citizen or permanent resident of the United States. 4
‘‘(g) R
ULE OFCONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec-5
tion shall be construed to limit the application of any other 6
relevant law, including section 2252 of this title.’’. 7
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of sections 8
for chapter 88 of title 18, United States Code, is amended 9
by inserting after the item relating to section 1801 the 10
following: 11
‘‘1802. Certain activities relating to intimate visual depictions.’’.
(c) CONFORMINGAMENDMENT.—Section 2264(a) of 12
title 18, United States Code, is amended by inserting ‘‘, 13
or under section 1802 of this title’’ before the period. 14
Æ
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