A bill

to amend the South Carolina Code of Laws by adding Section 16-15-430 so as to create the offenses of "sexual extortion" and "aggravated sexual extortion", to define necessary terms, and to provide penalties for violations.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

SECTION 1.Article 3, Chapter 15, Title 16 of the S.C. Code is amended by adding:

Section 16-15-430.(A) As used in this section:

(1) "Adult" means a person eighteen years or older.

(2) "Child" means any person under eighteen years of age.

(4) "Intimate image" means any visual depiction, photograph, film, video, recording, picture, or computer or computer-generated image or picture, whether made or produced by electronic, mechanical, or other means, that depicts:

(a) exposed human male or female genitals or pubic area, with less than an opaque covering;

(b) a female breast with less than an opaque covering, or any portion of the female breast below the top of the areola; or

(c) a person engaged in any sexually explicit conduct.

(5) "Position of special trust" means:

(a) an adoptive parent;

(b) an athletic manager who is an adult;

(c) an aunt;

(d) a babysitter;

(e) a coach;

(f) a cohabitant of a parent if the cohabitant is an adult;

(g) a counselor;

(h) a doctor or physician;

(i) an employer;

(j) a foster parent;

(k) a grandparent;

(l) a legal guardian;

(m) a natural parent;

(n) a recreational leader who is an adult;

(o) a religious leader;

(p) a sibling or a stepsibling who is adult;

(q) a scout leader who is an adult;

(r) a stepparent;

(s) a teacher or any other person employed by or volunteering at a public or private elementary school or secondary school, and who is an adult;

(t) an instructor, professor, or teaching assistant at a public or private institution of higher education;

(u) an uncle

(v) a youth leader who is an adult; or

(w) any other person in a position of authority which enables the person to exercise undue influence over the child.

(6) "Sexually explicit conduct" means actual or simulated:

(a) sexual intercourse, including genital-genital, oral-genital, anal-genital, or oral-anal, whether between persons of the same or opposite sex;

(b) masturbation;

(c) bestiality;

(d) sadistic or masochistic activities;

(e) exhibition of the genitals, pubic region, buttocks, or female breast of any person;

(f) visual depiction of nudity or partial nudity;

(g) fondling or touching of the genitals, pubic region, buttocks, or female breast; or

(h) explicit representation of the defecation or urination functions.

(7) "Simulated sexually explicit conduct" means a feigned or pretended act of sexually explicit conduct that duplicates, within the perception of an average person, the appearance of an actual act of sexually explicit conduct.

(8) "Vulnerable adult" means as defined in Section 43-35-10.

(B) A person commits the offense of sexual extortion if the person:

(1) with the wilful and malicious intent to coerce a victim to engage in sexual contact, in sexually explicit conduct, or in simulated sexually explicit conduct, communicates by any means a threat:

(a) to the victim's person, property, or reputation; or

(b) to distribute an intimate image or video of the victim;

(2) knowingly causes a victim to engage in sexual contact, in sexually explicit conduct, or in simulated sexually explicit conduct, or to produce, provide, or distribute any image, video, or other recording of any person naked or engaged in sexually explicit conduct by means of a threat:

(a) to the victim's person, property, or reputation; or

(b) to distribute an intimate image or video of the victim.

(C) A person commits aggravated sexual extortion when, in conjunction with the offense described in subsection (B), any of the following circumstances have been charged and admitted or found true in the action for the offense:

(1) the victim is a child or vulnerable adult;

(2) the offense was committed by the use of a dangerous weapon or by violence, intimidation, menace, fraud, or threat of physical harm, or was committed during the course of a kidnapping;

(3) the person caused bodily injury or severe psychological injury to the victim during or as a result of the offense;

(4) the person was a stranger to the victim or became a friend of the victim for the purpose of committing the offense;

(5) the person, before sentencing for the offense, was previously convicted of any sexual offense;

(6) the person occupied a position of special trust in relation to the victim;

(7) the person encouraged, aided, allowed, or benefitted from acts of prostitution or sexual acts by the victim with any other person, or sexual performance by the victim before any other person, human trafficking, or human smuggling; or

(8) the person caused the penetration, however slight, of the genital or anal opening of the victim by any part or parts of the human body, or by any other object.

(D) An adult who violates the provisions of subsection (B) is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, must be imprisoned not more than five years.

(E)(1) An adult who violates the provisions of subsection (C) is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, must be imprisoned not more than thirty years if the victim is a child or a vulnerable adult, and may be ordered to be included in the sex offender registry as a condition of sentencing in the discretion of the presiding judge pursuant to Section 23-3-430.

(2) If the victim is an adult, an adult who violates the provisions of subsection (C) is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, must be imprisoned not more than fifteen years.

(F) A child who violates the provisions of subsections (B) or (C) is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, must be imprisoned not more than three years.

(G) Notwithstanding subsections (D), (E), and (F), a person who violates the provisions of subsections (B) or (C), and such violation results in the death of the victim, is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, must be imprisoned not less than fifteen years.

(H) A person commits a separate offense under this section:

(1) for each victim the person subjects to the offense outlined in subsection (B); and

(2) for each separate time the actor subjects a victim to the offense outlined in subsection (B).

(I) An interactive computer service, as defined in 47 U.S.C. Section 230, is not subject to liability under this section related to content provided by a user of the interactive computer service.

SECTION 2.This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.

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