Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 346.
This bill fights online child exploitation in three main ways: it updates sentencing rules so judges have better guidance for punishing people convicted of child sexual abuse material offenses, it creates a new federal crime for coercing children online into harming themselves or others, and it makes it illegal to threaten to share sexual images of children as a way to intimidate or extort someone. If this passes, predators who target children online would face tougher and more specific penalties, and new types of harmful behavior toward children would become federal crimes.
Children face growing threats from online predators who use tactics , like threatening to leak images or pressuring kids to hurt themselves , that current federal law doesn't fully address. This bill would close those gaps by creating new federal crimes and toughening penalties, giving prosecutors stronger tools to hold offenders accountable.