THE SENATE	S.R. NO.	71
THIRTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2026
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE RESOLUTION

 

 

requesting the hawaii state commission on the status of women, in collaboration with the department of the attorney general, to establish a working group and provide a report to the legislature on ways to strengthen protections for survivors of image-based sexual abuse.

 

 

 

     WHEREAS, image-based sexual abuse involves the sharing, or threat of sharing, explicit images or videos of another person without their consent, often with the intent to harm the victim's health, safety, mental wellness, employment, financial condition, reputation, or personal relationships; and

 

     WHEREAS, image-based sexual abuse is included as a class C felony under existing state law, which covers offenses that constitute a violation of privacy in the first degree; and

 

     WHEREAS, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation recognizes nine different forms of image-based sexual abuse, including nonconsensual distribution of sexually explicit material, collection of nonconsensual distributed sexually explicit materials, recorded sexual violence, sexual extortion, sexual violence in virtual or augmented reality, tech-facilitated sexual coercion, video voyeurism, and multiple forms of computer-generated or artificial intelligence-generated abuse; and

 

     WHEREAS, a 2017 study by the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative found that 12.8 percent of respondents reported being survivors of image-based sexual abuse; and

 

     WHEREAS, estimates of prevalence rates for image-based sexual abuse, like sexual assault, are widely believed to be low because of the social stigma, personal shame, and emotional and financial repercussions of reporting such abuse; and

 

     WHEREAS, a study published in 2019 in the academic journal, Psychology of Violence, found that seventy-three percent of survivors of image-based sexual abuse did not turn to anyone for help after discovering the abuse, in part because of legal challenges obtaining pathways to justice for the trauma they endured; and

 

     WHEREAS, emergent technologies, such as artificial intelligence and virtual and augmented reality, are making the facilitation of image-based sexual abuse easier for perpetrators; and

 

     WHEREAS, a 2019 report by Sensity, a company that detects and monitors sexual deepfakes, found that ninety-five percent of all online deepfake videos are nonconsensual sexual deepfakes, with ninety percent of those videos targeting women; and

 

     WHEREAS, the State has a responsibility to ensure, to the greatest extent possible, that gender violence is not further enabled by the rise of new technologies; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Thirty-third Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2026, that the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, in collaboration with the Department of the Attorney General, is requested to establish a working group comprised of gender-based violence service providers and survivors of gender-based violence to conduct a review of statutes and policies nationwide to evaluate possibilities for policy or program enhancements to protect survivors of image-based sexual abuse that can be adapted from other states and incorporated into Hawaii law; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, in collaboration with the Department of the Attorney General, is requested to submit a report of its findings and recommendations, including any proposed legislation on ways to strengthen protections for survivors of image-based sexual abuse, to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2027; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Executive Director of the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women; and prosecuting attorneys of each of the counties.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title: 

Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women; Department of the Attorney General; Image-Based Sexual Abuse; Protections; Working Group; Report