SB2135 HD1

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that image-based sexual abuse is a form of technology-facilitated abuse that involves the nonconsensual use of intimate or private images to control, manipulate, or harm a victim. Online predators, often motivated by money, power, control, or sexual gratification, use online platforms to anonymously perpetrate image-based sexual abuse, targeting vulnerable individuals to meet the perpetrator's demands for money, sexual acts, and additional intimate or private images, which can include images of self-harm. Financial blackmail schemes involving sexual extortion through the nonconsensual disclosure of intimate or private images result in tragic and, at times, fatal results for the victims of these schemes and may cause victims to experience significant harm, including depression, fear, anxiety, damage to reputation, social isolation, financial devastation, and suicide.

The legislature further finds that offender accountability is necessary to shine the light on those who would hide behind computers, mobile phones, or other electronic devices to prey upon vulnerable individuals in the community.

Accordingly, the purpose of this Act is to establish the felony offense of nonconsensual disclosure of intimate images or private images.

SECTION 2. Chapter 711, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to part I to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§711- Nonconsensual disclosure of intimate images or private images. (1) A person commits the offense of nonconsensual disclosure of intimate images or private images if:

(a) The person intentionally or knowingly discloses or threatens to disclose an intimate image or private image of another identifiable person without consent and with the intent to compel or attempt to compel the person depicted in the intimate image or private image:

(i) To do or refrain from doing any act against the person's will;

(ii) To provide additional intimate images or private images;

(iii) To engage in sexual acts;

(iv) To engage in acts of self-harm;

(v) For anything of value; or

(vi) To affect any family court proceeding in which the depicted person is a party;

(b) The person intentionally or knowingly discloses or threatens to disclose an intimate image or private image of another identifiable person without consent and the person depicted in the intimate image or private image:

(i) Is a minor or vulnerable adult and the person committing the offense is an adult; or

(ii) Suffers bodily injury; or

(c) The person intentionally or knowingly discloses or threatens to disclose an intimate image or private image of another identifiable person without consent, and the nonconsensual disclosure or threatened disclosure of the intimate image or private image was the proximate cause of the death of the person depicted in the intimate image or private image.

(2) Nonconsensual disclosure of intimate images or private images shall be a class B felony.

(3) For the purposes of this section:

"Affect" means to influence or produce a change.

"Bodily injury" has the same meaning as in section 707-700.

"Family court proceeding" means any proceeding involving:

(a) A child custody or child support proceeding under chapter 571;

(b) An annulment, divorce, or separation under chapter 580;

(d) A protective order under section 586-5.5.

"Intimate image" means any digital image, photograph, computer-generated image or video, or live or recorded video that depicts a person in the nude, as defined in section 712-1210, or engaged in sexual conduct, as defined in section 712-1210.

"Minor" means any person under the age of eighteen years.

"Private image" means any digital image, photograph, computer-generated image or video, or live or recorded video that depicts a person committing acts of self-harm, self-mutilation, or other self-injury that results in bodily injury.

"Self-harm" means bodily injury; substantial bodily injury, as defined in 707-700; serious bodily injury, as defined in section 707-700; or death.

"Vulnerable adult" has the same meaning as in section 346‑222."

SECTION 3. Section 706-662, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§706-662 Criteria for extended terms of imprisonment. A defendant who has been convicted of a felony may be subject to an extended term of imprisonment under section 706-661 if it is proven beyond a reasonable doubt that an extended term of imprisonment is necessary for the protection of the public and that the convicted defendant satisfies one or more of the following criteria:

(1) The defendant is a persistent offender in that the defendant has previously been convicted of two or more felonies committed at different times when the defendant was twenty-one years of age or older;

(2) The defendant is a professional criminal in that:

(a) The circumstances of the crime show that the defendant has knowingly engaged in criminal activity as a major source of livelihood; or

(b) The defendant has substantial income or resources not explained to be derived from a source other than criminal activity;

(3) The defendant is a dangerous person in that the defendant has been subjected to a psychiatric or psychological evaluation that documents a significant history of dangerousness to others resulting in criminally violent conduct, and this history makes the defendant a serious danger to others. Nothing in this section precludes the introduction of victim-related data to establish dangerousness in accord with the Hawaii rules of evidence;

(4) The defendant is a multiple offender in that:

(a) The defendant is being sentenced for two or more felonies or is already under sentence of imprisonment for any felony; or

(b) The maximum terms of imprisonment authorized for each of the defendant's crimes, if made to run consecutively, would equal or exceed in length the maximum of the extended term imposed or would equal or exceed forty years if the extended term imposed is for a class A felony;

(5) The defendant is an offender against the elderly, the handicapped, or a minor eight years of age or younger in that:

(a) The defendant attempts or commits any of the following crimes: murder, manslaughter, a sexual offense that constitutes a felony under chapter 707, robbery, felonious assault, burglary, or kidnapping; and

(b) The defendant, in the course of committing or attempting to commit the crime, inflicts serious or substantial bodily injury upon a person who has the status of being:

(i) Sixty years of age or older;

(ii) Blind, a paraplegic, or a quadriplegic; or

(iii) Eight years of age or younger; and

the person's status is known or reasonably should be known to the defendant;

(6) The defendant is a hate crime offender in that:

(a) The defendant is convicted of a crime under chapter 707, 708, or 711; and

(b) The defendant intentionally selected a victim or, in the case of a property crime, the property that was the object of a crime, because of hostility toward the actual or perceived race, religion, disability, ethnicity, national origin, gender identity or expression, or sexual orientation of any person. For purposes of this subsection, "gender identity or expression" includes a person's actual or perceived gender, as well as a person's gender identity, gender-related self-image, gender-related appearance, or gender-related expression, regardless of whether that gender identity, gender-related self-image, gender-related appearance, or gender-related expression is different from that traditionally associated with the person's sex at birth; [or]

(7) The defendant is convicted under section 707-702.5 and the defendant did not remain at the scene of the crime and render reasonable assistance to an injured person, including acts and omissions in violation of section 291C-12[.]; or

(8) The defendant is an offender against a minor eighteen years of age or younger or a vulnerable adult, as defined under section 346-222, in that:

(a) The defendant attempts to commit or commits the offense of nonconsensual disclosure of intimate images or private images under section 711- ; and

(b) The attempted commission or commission of the nonconsensual disclosure of the intimate image or private image was the proximate cause of the death of the minor or vulnerable adult."

SECTION 4. This Act does not affect rights and duties that matured, penalties that were incurred, and proceedings that were begun before its effective date.

SECTION 5. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 3000.

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	2135
THIRTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2026		S.D. 2
STATE OF HAWAII		H.D. 1