SHIELD Act passes through Senate

SHIELD Act

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(ABC 6 News) — Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar is celebrating a bill designed to make it easier to prosecute people who share explicit images online.

It is called the Stopping Harmful Image Exploitation and Limiting Distribution Act, or SHIELD Act, and it was recently passed through the Senate.

Olmsted County Attorney Mark Ostrem was at the conference and shared how the bill help law enforcement.

“It broadens the definition of a visual depiction of a nude minor,” Ostrem said. “It broadens the nature of the offenses, specifically that the actor knew or reasonably should have known the individual had a reasonable expectation of privacy.”

While many of these posts target adults, Klobuchar said the threat of sharing the images is beginning to affect minors as well.

“I’m thinking about Gavin Guffey, a 17-year-old artist, skateboarder, and comic book fan who took his life after he was blackmailed with the threat of distributing nude photos over Instagram,” Klobuchar said. “Jordan DeMay, a high school senior and straight-A student who took his life after he fell prey to a similar scheme.”

Senator Klobuchar says her next goal is to pass a similar bill targeting explicit images created using AI.