The Shield Act Passes Senate
Legislation ensures criminals who exploit adults or children by sharing intimate images online are held accountable.
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and John Cornyn (R-TX) announced their bipartisan legislation to address the online exploitation of explicit, private images has passed the Senate. Current state laws offer incomplete and inconsistent protection for victims of non-consensual image exploitation and abuse. The Stopping Harmful Image Exploitation and Limiting Distribution (SHIELD) Act would provide federal law enforcement with the tools they need to crack down on serious privacy violations.
“Current laws are not sufficient to protect victims of online abuse and harassment,” said Klobuchar. “We need to provide victims, including children, with the legal protection they need when intimate images are shared without their consent. My SHIELD Act with Senator Cornyn does just that and will help ensure that exploiters will be held accountable.”
“Those who have had their digital privacy violated shouldn’t have to fear that their abusers will go unpunished,” said Cornyn. “Our legislation will help ensure criminals who share private images of others online, including explicit photos of children, are held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
“The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) applauds Senator Klobuchar and Senator Cornyn for their leadership on Senate passage of the SHIELD Act. This essential piece of legislation protects children and closes a gap in current law by criminalizing the distribution of sexually explicit images of a child. Over the past 3 years, NCMEC has seen a 300% increase in reports of online enticement, including sextortion, to our CyberTipline. The SHIELD Act will provide a crucial legal remedy for children in many of these cases. We look forward to working with Representatives Dean, Plaskett, Fitzpatrick, and Mace to ensure that the SHIELD Act passes the House and is enacted this term. NCMEC is appreciative of all Congressional supporters of the SHIELD Act who are working to prioritize child safety online,” said Michelle DeLaune, President and CEO of NCMEC.
“In a world where smart phones and other devices are used to record and share every moment in life, it is vital to protect against the malicious, nonconsensual sharing of private, explicit images. These privacy violations disproportionately target women and minors. By establishing federal liability for those who share private images without consent, the SHIELD Act will help law enforcement bring justice to the victims of these crimes. We thank Senator Klobuchar for her leadership and stand with her in support of this important bill,” said Bill Johnson, Executive Director of the National Association of Police Organizations.
“As technology advances at a rapid pace, so too does the exploitation of some of our most vulnerable victims in our communities—children. The Stopping Harmful Image Exploitation and Limiting Distribution (SHIELD) Act takes an important step to hold those who prey on children and others accountable. The legislation also addresses the challenges of "sextortion" and closes a loophole where child pornography falls short of meeting the definition of sexual content. We appreciate Senator Klobuchar and Senator Cornyn's efforts to provide the necessary tools to law enforcement and prosecutors to keep our communities safe,” said Nelson Bunn, Executive Director of the National District Attorneys Association.
.The SHIELD Act would:
Ensure that the Department of Justice has an appropriate and effective tool to address serious privacy violations;
Establish federal criminal liability for individuals who share private, sexually explicit, or nude images without consent;
Fill in gaps in existing law that prevent prosecutors from holding those who share explicit images of children accountable;
Address the threat of sexual extortion scams, many of which target young people; and
Protect the victims of serious privacy violations, while leaving room for sharing consensual images and images of public concern.
Earlier this year at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing titled “Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis,” Senator Klobuchar was part of a hearing that questioned the CEO of Discord Inc., Jason Citron, the CEO of TikTok Inc., Shou Chew, the Co-founder and CEO of Snap Inc., Evan Spiegel, the CEO of X (formerly Twitter), Linda Yaccarino, and the Founder and CEO of Meta (formerly Facebook), Mark Zuckerberg, about their companies turning a blind eye when young children joined their platforms, the risk of sexual exploitation, using algorithms that push harmful content, and providing a venue for drug traffickers to sell deadly narcotics like fentanyl.
In 2017, Klobuchar and former Senators Richard Burr (R-NC) and Kamala Harris (D-CA), introduced the first version of this legislation, the bipartisan Ending Nonconsensual Online User Graphic Harassment (ENOUGH) Act.