Stop Sextortion Act
Analysis under review: This bill has generated analysis that may be too generic or incomplete. Clause-level evidence remains available below.
Summary
What This Bill Does
This bill criminalizes threats to distribute child sexual abuse material and increases penalties for offenses involving the knowing use of such material to intimidate, coerce, extort, or cause substantial emotional distress.
Who Benefits and How
Children and other victims of sextortion could benefit from clearer federal criminal coverage for threats to distribute exploitative imagery, including cases where no image actually exists.
Who Bears the Burden and How
People who threaten to distribute child sexual abuse material or use it in related coercive offenses would face stronger federal criminal penalties.
Key Provisions
- Extends federal child exploitation statutes to threats to distribute visual depictions and child pornography, even if no image exists.
- Increases penalties for certain coercive offenses involving the knowing use of child pornography or related depictions.
- Includes a severability clause to preserve the Act if part is struck down.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
This bill criminalizes threats to distribute child sexual abuse material and increases penalties for offenses involving the knowing use of such material to intimidate, coerce, extort, or cause substantial emotional distress.
Key Policy Areas
Criminal Justice, Child Safety, Technology
Primary Purpose
This bill criminalizes threats to distribute child sexual abuse material and increases penalties for offenses involving the knowing use of such material to intimidate, coerce, extort, or cause substantial emotional distress.
Policy Domains
Main Provisions
Identified Gains
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Children and other victims of sextortion and coercive image-based abuse
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Identified Costs
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- People subject to expanded federal criminal liability for threat-based child sexual abuse material offenses
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeMr. Grassley (for himself, Mr. Durbin, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Cornyn, …
Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Introduced in Senate
Impact analysis is available but no clear stakeholder effects identified. View clause-level analysis →
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology