119th CONGRESS 1st Session |
To amend title 18, United States Code, to criminalize intentional threats to distribute child sexual abuse material, and to provide appropriate penalties for the use of child sexual abuse material to extort or coerce victims.
December 9, 2025
Mr. Grassley (for himself, Mr. Durbin, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Cornyn, Mrs. Blackburn, and Mr. Graham) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
To amend title 18, United States Code, to criminalize intentional threats to distribute child sexual abuse material, and to provide appropriate penalties for the use of child sexual abuse material to extort or coerce victims.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
This Act may be cited as the “Stop Sextortion Act”.
SEC. 2. Criminalizing threats to distribute child sexual abuse material.
Title 18, United States Code, is amended—
(i) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A)—
(I) by inserting “, or threatens to distribute any visual depiction with intent to intimidate, coerce, extort, or cause substantial emotional distress to any person,” after “distributes, any visual depiction”;
(II) by striking “foreign commerce or that” and inserting “foreign commerce, or involving a visual depiction that”; and
(III) by striking “, or which contains materials which have been mailed or so shipped or transported,”; and
(i) in paragraph (1), by striking “Whoever” and inserting “Except as provided in paragraph (3), whoever”; and
(ii) by adding at the end the following:
“(3) Whoever violates, or attempts or conspires to violate, subsection (a)(2) for threatening to distribute any visual depiction, as described in that subsection, shall be punished as provided in paragraph (2) of this subsection if no such visual depiction existed.”; and
(i) by inserting “, or threatens to distribute any child pornography with intent to intimidate, coerce, extort, or cause substantial emotional distress to any person,” after “any child pornography”; and
(ii) by striking “foreign commerce or that” and inserting “foreign commerce, or involving any child pornography that”; and
(i) in paragraph (1), by striking “Whoever” and inserting “Except as provided in paragraph (4), whoever”; and
(ii) by adding at the end the following:
“(4) Whoever violates, or attempts or conspires to violate, subsection (a)(2)(A) for threatening to distribute any child pornography, as described in that subsection, shall be punished as provided in paragraph (2) of this subsection if no such child pornography existed.”.
SEC. 3. Penalties for threats to distribute child sexual abuse material.
(a) In general.—Title 18, United States Code, is amended—
(A) in subsection (a), in the matter preceding subsection (b), by inserting “, but if the offense involves the knowing use of a visual depiction of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct, with the intent to intimidate, coerce, extort, or cause substantial emotional distress to any person, the maximum term of imprisonment provided in section 2252A(b)(1) shall be increased by 10 years” before the period at the end; and
(B) in subsection (b), in the matter preceding subsection (c), by inserting “, but if the offense involves the knowing use of a visual depiction of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct, with the intent to intimidate, coerce, extort, or cause substantial emotional distress to any person, the maximum term of imprisonment provided in section 2252A(b)(2) shall be increased by 10 years” before the period at the end; and
(A) in the section heading, by striking “Penalties for registered sex offenders” and inserting “Other offenses and penalties”;
(B) by striking “Whoever” and inserting the following:
“(1) OFFENSES BY REGISTERED SEX OFFENDERS.—Whoever”; and
(C) by adding at the end the following:
“(2) ADDITIONAL PENALTIES.—If any offense under section 875(d), 2251, 2252, 2252A, or 2260 involves the knowing use of child pornography with the intent to intimidate, coerce, extort, or cause substantial emotional distress to any person, the maximum term of imprisonment provided in section 875(d), 2251(e), 2252(b), 2252A(b), or 2260(c) shall be increased by 10 years.”.
(b) Clerical amendment.—The table of sections for chapter 110 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by striking the item relating to section 2260A and inserting the following:
If any provision of this Act, an amendment made by this Act, or the application of such provision or amendment to any person or circumstance is held to be unconstitutional, the remainder of this Act, the amendments made by this Act, and the application of the provisions of such to any person or circumstance shall not be affected thereby.