TN: “Unlawful Photography” law to take effect on July 1st.
Tennessee House Bill 99 becomes law on July 1st. The law enhances the penalty for unlawful photography from a Class A misdemeanor offense to a Class E felony. The penalty would increase further to a Class D felony or Class C felony in certain cases if the victim was younger than 13. Anyone convicted of unlawful photography would also be required to register as a sex offender. So what is “unlawful photography”? Unlawful photography is “taking sexually motivated or offensive photographs of individuals without consent, taking and disseminating embarrassing intimate photographs with intent to harass, and focusing on intimate areas without consent for sexual gratification.”
This information is not being posted to suggest it should be legal to take unlawful photos. It is merely being posted to highlight the growing number of offenses that can get someone placed on the sex offender registry.
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what is the definition of Unlawful Photography?
There are many Bird watchers and other demented people that take pictures of birds doing the NASTy?
The definition is found in Paragraph 1 of the article.
where is the codified statute
I recently shot a bird and It did not Sheet on me
what do I do with the photo?
Cj
You can post on National Geographic
CJ,
Only post serious comments here. Please don’t turn our forum into a joke.
If you are truly interested, it’s codified in TCA Section 39-13-605; Title 40, Chapter 39, Part 2.
Fac
Thanks for that
Cj
Those demented people ( I like to watch different birds) watch nature .,not view or send pornagtophy.
The registry doesn’t protect anyone just as murder laws don’t stop people from being murdered. The sentence is punishment. The registry is nothing but a shaming scheme that doesn’t allow people to get in with their lives. Murderers aren’t required to register when they’ve completed their sentences and they are statistically way more likely to recidivate than the 5.3% rate of registrants. As for this law, taking the pictures may be a crime, but taking the pictures doesn’t really matter, it’s all the other charges that would come with it, such as possession and distribution. If you just have it in your camera or computer, that’s possession. If you store it in the cloud, technically that’s distribution. Either way, if the crime was committed, who did the law protect? The answer is: no one. The registry doesn’t protect anyone. At all.
Tennessee has a total population of 7.2 million. Where does the 28 million come from?
Good addition to the list of offenses! Keep em coming. The registry protects 28 million lives.
[moderator’s note: no citation provided]
Only 28M? According to data, there were nearly 72M children in 2023 within the USA. Are they leaving behind children if their intent is to save even just one? Of course, of those who offend, the stats say 95-96% are first time offenders and not on the registry to start. So, keep blowing the registry fear mongering horn into the wind because no one is listening when it comes to it for facts about it. Sure not saving those high school children whose enjoyably get caught up with their educators.
the problem with vague laws like this that “sound good” but have no “clear cut” goal posts as to what exactly is “offensive” is it leaves much up to someone else’s personal interpretation.. THAT is always dangerous especially when government is doing the interpreting. Remember all those pictures that mom and dad took of us as kids taking baths, with chicken pox, in our underwear doing dumb kid stuff or other embarrassing moments? We all know that NOTHING sexual was ment BUT how long before that becomes a sex offence felony according to a judges interpretation? We all know prosecutors, cops, and judges LOVE to play loose and free with their “interpretations” when it gives an opportunity for a new conviction.. Got to get those record breaking conviction numbers to support the prison and registry industrys..
That had already happened a person I was in jail with was in for doing just that they put a Pic of there kid in the sink getting a bath on theyer Facebook time line and was arrested for disseminating child porn ! Enem tho the pic was actuly taken in the 1950 s