Governor gets teen-sexting measure

Compromise measure addresses complicated – and prevalent – issue

A compromise teen sexting bill is heading to the desk of Colorado’s governor after passing both chambers of the state’s legislature and more than two years of fierce debate about howto address the complicated issue that’s becoming more prevalent.

“It’s all equal parts relief and happiness,” said Rep. Yuelin Willett, R-Grand Junction, who has been one of the champions of the legislation. “I think it’s actually a better bill than when it started. I think it actually ended up around the right place after about 30 stakeholders fought over it for two years.”

House Bill 1302 was approved the state Senate on Thursday after unanimously passing the House.

The legislation, expected to be signed into lawby Gov. John Hickenlooper, would make consensual exchanges of nude images by children a civil infraction and gives prosecutors a range of options — from a petty offense to a felony — to use against teens who possess or distribute sexts against a victim’s will.

The legislation would make any juvenile who is at least 14 and has a nude image of another teen without their permission, and who is within four years of the victim’s age, commit a petty offense. Anyone— who is at least 14 years old and within four years of the victim’s age— who posts a nude image of a juvenile online or in another form would commit a Class 2 misdemeanor.

Under the bill, offenders whose actions fall under the petty offense or civil infraction could never be charged with a Class 3 felony child pornography offense — the only charge currently applicable to teen sexting, which can land a child on a sex offender registry. The felony accusation, however, can still be leveled against juvenile offenders if a district attorney feels it is appropriate in egregious cases.

Last month, lawmakers struggled to reach a deal on the legislation as the session neared its end.

The stumbling block involved so-called “consensual sexting” — which doomed such legislation last year — and prosecutors’ ability to file felony child porn charges against juveniles in especially aggravated cases involving bullying, coercion or sexual assault.

The debate split prosecutors and advocacy groups this session into feuding factions with each side backing a bill — one that would allow kids to take and share nude photos of themselves with consent and another that would make such behavior illegal, but gives district attorneys an array of mostly minor charges to file.

District attorneys also wanted to ensure the felony charge was still an option while victims’ advocates sought to have it barred from use against teen sexters.

A long list of amendments to House Bill 1302, negotiated by Rep. Pete Lee, D-Colorado Springs, and Willett anda list of stakeholders, made the legislation’s passage possible.

“This bill now has basically really hit the sweet spot— threading the needle,” Willett said earlier.

Legislators have been trying for several years to pass some kind of bill to address teen sexting with a misdemeanor or lower charge option.

The debate heated up in late 2015 after about 100 students at Cañon City high school were found to be trading hundreds of nude images with each other, prompting international headlines and fears a whole community’s children could be labeled sex offenders. Prosecutors eventually decided not to charge any of the teens involved.

The compromise bill encourages district attorneys to create diversion programs for first time offenders to help juveniles avoid court judgments. It also mandates that court records for offenders must be expunged within 42 days completing a sentence or diversion program.