BILL ANALYSIS

S.B. 20

By: Flores

Criminal Jurisprudence

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

The bill sponsor has informed the committee that the proliferation of digital technologies has led to the emergence of new forms of child exploitation materials, including those generated by artificial intelligence (AI), cartoons, and other computer-generated imagery, and that while not depicting real children, these materials can be indistinguishable from actual child pornography and are increasingly accessible online. The bill sponsor has further informed the committee that under current law, Texas does not adequately address the possession or promotion of such materials, which has created a legal gap that hinders law enforcement efforts to combat child exploitation. S.B. 20 seeks to address this gap and strengthen Texas laws against child exploitation by creating a new offense for the possession or promotion of obscene visual material that appears to depict a child engaged in sexual conduct, regardless of whether the depiction is of an actual child, which includes AI-generated images, cartoons, animations, and other computer-generated content. The bill also enhances penalties for repeat offenders and includes these offenses under the scope of organized criminal activity statutes.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill expressly does one or more of the following: creates a criminal offense, increases the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or changes the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

S.B. 20 amends the Penal Code to create the state jail felony offense of possession or promotion of obscene visual material appearing to depict a child for a person who knowingly possesses, accesses with intent to view, or promotes obscene visual material containing a depiction that appears to be of a child younger than 18 years of age engaging in the following patently offensive activities, regardless of whether the depiction is an image of an actual child, a cartoon or animation, or an image created using an artificial intelligence application or other computer software:

· ultimate sexual acts, normal or perverted, actual or simulated, including sexual intercourse, sodomy, and sexual bestiality; or

· masturbation, excretory functions, sadism, masochism, lewd exhibition of the genitals, the male or female genitals in a state of sexual stimulation or arousal, covered male genitals in a discernibly turgid state or a device designed and marketed as useful primarily for stimulation of the human genital organs.

The bill enhances the penalty as follows:

· to a third degree felony if it is shown on the trial of the offense that the person has been previously convicted one time of an offense under the these provisions or any of the following offenses:

o obscenity;

o possession or promotion of child pornography;

o electronic transmission of certain visual material depicting a minor; or

o possession or promotion of lewd visual material depicting a child offense; and

· a second degree felony if it is shown on the trial of the offense that the person has been previously convicted two or more times of one of those offenses or any combination of those offenses.

The bill establishes that if conduct constituting the offense created under these provisions also constitutes an offense under another law, the actor may be prosecuted under the bill's provisions, the other law, or both.

S.B. 20 authorizes the sentences, if the accused is found guilty of more than one offense arising out of the same criminal episode, to run concurrently or consecutively if each sentence is for a conviction of the following:

· possession or promotion of obscene visual material appearing to depict a child; or

· an offense for which a plea agreement was reached in a case in which the accused was charged with more than one such offense.

The bill includes such a conviction of the offense among the combination of offenses to which the authorization currently applies.

S.B. 20 expands the conduct constituting the offense of engaging in organized criminal activity to include any possession or promotion of obscene visual material appearing to depict a child offense with the intent to establish, maintain, or participate in a combination or in the profits of a combination or as a member of a criminal street gang or foreign terrorist organization.

S.B. 20 applies only to an offense committed on or after the bill's effective date. An offense committed before the bill's effective date is governed by the law in effect on the date the offense was committed, and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose. For these purposes, an offense was committed before the bill's effective date if any element of the offense occurred/was committed before that date.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2025.