Bill > A5004

This bill creates a comprehensive legal framework for defining and criminalizing child sexual abuse and exploitation material, expanding and replacing existing laws related to child pornography. The bill establishes detailed definitions for terms like "child", "identifiable child", "purported child", and "prohibited sexual act", and creates multiple degrees of criminal offenses related to creating, distributing, possessing, and manipulating sexually exploitative imagery of children, including computer-generated or manipulated images. The bill introduces nuanced provisions that criminalize various aspects of child sexual exploitation, such as creating, photographing, distributing, possessing, and storing sexually exploitative images of children. It establishes different degrees of criminal offenses based on the number of items involved and the specific nature of the content, with penalties ranging from third-degree to first-degree crimes. The legislation includes mandatory minimum sentences for repeat offenders and sets specific guidelines for how images are counted and aggregated for sentencing purposes. Importantly, the bill introduces provisions for computer-generated or manipulated images, recognizing that children can be exploited even through artificially created imagery. It includes affirmative defenses for certain situations, such as when a person has a minimal number of images and takes steps to destroy or report them, or when the images are created between individuals close in age with a pre-existing relationship. The bill also amends numerous existing statutes across various areas of New Jersey law to reference and incorporate these new definitions and provisions, ensuring consistent treatment of child sexual exploitation materials across different legal contexts, including employment background checks, housing regulations, and criminal record considerations.

Budget and Finance, Business and Industry, Justice

https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/bill-search/2024/A5004