A state Assembly bill making it illegal to disseminate sexual images online and through phones without the sender’s consent passed on a voice vote Tuesday in the state Assembly.
The bill, officially called the Individual Privacy Protection Act, but commonly referred to as the “revenge porn ban” and “sexting” bill because of the content it covers, passed with one amendment, written by the bill’s author, state Rep. John Spiros, R-Marshfield.
The amendment excluded images that were newsworthy or of public importance from the bill.
If the bill were to become law, it would cover issues such as those people whose intimate pictures, taken while they were in a relationship, are posted online after a breakup, as well as those people who choose to “sext” someone else, and find that the receiver forwarded the message on to others.
The Assembly messaged the bill to the state Senate, which had its last session for the year Tuesday, after the successful voice vote.
