This bill establishes a separate crime for child sexual abuse and exploitation material, which was previously categorized under child endangerment laws. The intent behind this change is to enhance clarity in law enforcement and judicial processes, as well as to improve the tracking of crime statistics related to these offenses. Additionally, the bill expands the definition of child sexual abuse and exploitation material to include manipulated images that appear to depict a child in a sexual act. It also revises definitions related to child erotica to align with a recent State Supreme Court ruling, and it amends the obscenity statute to include similar manipulated depictions.

Furthermore, the bill modifies the penalties for leading a network that shares child sexual abuse or exploitation material, lowering the threshold for a first-degree crime from 100,000 items to 1,000 items, while establishing a second-degree crime for offenses involving fewer than 1,000 items. This change is expected to result in longer incarceration terms for offenders. The bill also updates the invasion of privacy statute to include manipulated images of individuals without consent and clarifies that consent to being recorded does not imply consent for distribution. The Office of Legislative Services anticipates that the bill will lead to an indeterminate increase in state expenditures and revenues, primarily due to potential increases in prosecutions and longer incarceration periods.

Statutes affected:
Introduced: 2A:4A-71.1, 2A:53A-7.4, 2A:82-46, 2A:84A-16.1, 2A:84A-32.4, 2A:156A-8, 2A:162-12, 2A:162-19, 2A:168A-8, 2C:7-2, 2C:13-6, 2C:13-7, 2C:13-10, 2C:14-9, 2C:24-4.1, 2C:39-7, 2C:43-3.8, 2C:43-6.4, 2C:44-6.3, 3B:5-14.1, 5:12-86, 9:2-4.1, 9:3-40.5, 9:6-8.84, 9:6A-10, 18A:6-7.1, 30:4-3.5, 30:4-91.8, 30:4-91.9, 30:4-123.53, 30:4-123.54, 30:4C-26.8, 30:4C-27.19, 30:5B-6.14, 30:5B-25.7, 30:6D-64, 39:5G-2, 39:5H-20, 46:8-56, 46:8-59, 53:1-20.20