Honorable Dan Patrick, Lieutenant Governor, Senate
FROM:
Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
SB20 by Flores (Relating to the creation of the criminal offense of possession or promotion of obscene visual material appearing to depict a child.), As Passed 2nd House
The bill would create the state jail felony offense of possessing, accessing, or promoting obscene visual material containing a depiction of a child who appears to be younger than 18 years of age, regardless of whether the image is an actual child or created using artificial intelligence, or uses an image of a child with intent to train artificial intelligence to produce material constituting child pornography. The penalty would be increased to a third degree felony in the case of a previous conviction of the offense or certain obscenity offenses, and increased to a second degree felony in the case of two or more certain previous convictions. The bill would also add the new offense to the list of offenses involved in engaging in organized criminal activity. The bill would add the offense to the list of offenses which are eligible for consecutive sentences if multiple offenses occur within the same criminal episode.
Creating a new criminal offense may result in an increase in demands upon state and local correctional resources due to a possible increase in the number of individuals placed under supervision in the community or sentenced to a term of confinement.
In fiscal year 2024, there were 2,265 arrests, 197 placements on community supervision, and 269 entries into a state correctional institution for certain obscenity offenses that, when combined with a conviction for the new offense outlined in the bill's provisions, would be eligible for increased penalties.
The impact on state correctional populations or on the demand for state correctional resources cannot be determined due to the lack of data to estimate the prevalence of the conduct outlined in the bill's provisions that would be subject to criminal penalties.