‘Recycled’ bill wants to penalize ‘revenge porn’

Rep. Joseph Lee Pan T. Guerrero (R-Saipan) has pre-filed a bill that will create penalties in the CNMI for the unauthorized disclosure of intimate sexual images—more commonly referred to as “revenge porn.”

Guerrero’s H.B. 22-1, which is the first legislation filed in the 22nd House of the Representatives, is the updated version of of H.B. 21-107 that then-representative Janet U. Maratita first offered in February 2020. At that time, the House passed Maratita’s bill but the Senate did not act on it.

In H.B. 22-1, Guerrero said nonconsensual exposure of intimate images and sexual extortion are becoming common experiences for too many people and that advances in technology have transformed and expanded the ways in which sexual violence can be perpetrated. He said the dissemination of sexually explicit images of others without their permission, sometimes called “nonconsensual pornography,” often involves situations where the individual consented to the photo or videos but expected they would be kept private. In other cases, images may have been taken surreptitiously and then shared.

In July 2018, the Uniform Law Commission approved the Uniform Civil Remedies for Unauthorized Disclosure of Intimate Images Act. Guerrero said that law provides a “uniform, clear, fair, and constitutionally sound definition of this harmful conduct and remedies for the harm it causes.”

Under Guerrero’s bill, a winning plaintiff may recover damages caused by the defendant’s disclosure or threatened disclosures, including damages for emotional distress, whether or not accompanied by other damages.

A prevailing party may recover statutory damages not to exceed $10,000 against each defendant.

In determining the amount of statutory damages, consideration must be given to the age of the parties, the number of disclosures or threatened disclosures made, the breadth of distribution, and other exacerbating or mitigating factors.

An unauthorized disclosure may be brought at any time after the date the disclosure was discovered or should have been discovered with the exercise of reasonable negligence.

The bill says a threat to disclose may be brought at any time after the date of the threat to disclose.

Guerrero stated that some adults in the CNMI have had their nude or semi-nude image of themselves sent to others or posted online without their permission. One concerning trend, among others, was that of “revenge porn”—the term given to the nonconsensual distribution of nude or sexual imagery of one person by a current or former intimate partner.