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Who cares
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Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to codes
- Referred to codes
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the penal law, in relation to disseminating indecent material to minors in the first degree, promoting and possessing an obscene sexual performance by a child, and promoting and possessing a sexual performance by a child; and to amend the civil rights law, in relation to a child victim's right of privacy
Purpose or general idea of bill
: This bill would increase the penalties for using a child in a sexual performance and promoting an obscene sexual performance by a child and imposes consecutive--as opposed to concurrent-sentences on a child pornographers.
Summary of specific provisions
: Section one of this bill would amend the Penal Law to amend the definitions of "sexual performance" and "obscene sexual performance" to include sexual conduct by a child less than eighteen years of age. Current law defines such terms to include sexual conduct by a child less than sixteen years of age.
Read the full memo (882 words)
Section two of this law would amend the Penal Law that establishes a new crime of use of a child in a sexual performance in the first degree, for using children less than 12 years of age to engage in a sexual performance, which would be a class B felony.
Section three of this bill would amend the Penal Law to rename the current crime of use of a child in a sexual performance to use of a child in a sexual performance in the second degree, which remains a class C felony, and increase the age of the children protected by this second degree offense from less than sixteen to less than eighteen years of age.
Section four of this bill would amend the Penal Law to establish a new crime of promoting an obscene sexual performance by a child in the first degree, which would be a class C felony.
Section five of this bill would amend the Penal Law to rename the current crime of promoting an obscene sexual performance by a child to promoting an obscene sexual performance by a child in the second degree, which would remain a class 0 felony, and increase the age of the children protected by this second degree offense from less than sixteen years to less than eighteen years of age.
Section six of this bill would amend the Penal Law to increase the age of children protected by the offense of possessing an obscene sexual performance by a child from less than sixteen to less than eighteen years of age.
Section seven of this bill would amend the Penal Law to establish the crime of promoting a sexual performance by a child in the first degree, which would be a class C felony.
Section eight of this bill would amend the Penal Law to rename the current crime of promoting a sexual performance by a child to promoting a sexual performance by a child in the second degree, which remains a class D felony. and-increase the age of the children protected by this second degree offense from less than sixteen to less than eighteen years of age.
Section nine of this bill would amend the Penal Law to increase the age of the children protected by the offense of possessing a sexual performance by a child from less than sixteen to less than eighteen years of age.
Section ten of this bill would amend the Penal Law to provide an affirmative defense if, in good faith, the defendant reasonably
believed that the person appearing in a performance was eighteen, rather than sixteen years of age.
Section eleven of this bill would amend the Penal Law to provide for sentences of imprisonment to run consecutively when a person is convicted of a child pornography crime and any other crime.
Justification
: The current statutory provisions relating to the use of a child in a sexual performance and the promotion of an obscene sexual performance by a child are inadequate, drawing no distinction between children of differing ages nor permitting consecutive sentences.
This bill would afford greater protection to children by providing a necessary deterrent to those who would seek to use children in sexual performances. Specifically, new sections of the Penal Law would be created to protect children under the age of twelve and impose a higher penalty than presently applicable.
This bill would also extend the protection to children under the age of eighteen, rather than under the age of sixteen.
The imposition of consecutive, rather than concurrent, sentences in this bill would add an especially important deterrent to child pornographers, since the very nature of their activity often may lead them to commit multiple criminal acts.
Child pornography, is a uniquely heinous crime in that the child is exploited at the time of the initial performance, as well as every time the permanent recording is viewed. Thus, it seems clear that the punishment should not be lost amid concurrent sentences. This bill would ensure that such a criminal will be held separately responsible for each of his or her criminal acts.
Prior legislative history
:
2006 - S.932 - Passed Senate; 2008 - S.3656 - Referred to Standing Committee on Codes.
Fiscal implications
None Noted.
Effective date
This act would take effect on the first of November following enactment.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.