STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2320

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2375

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Technology and the Arts, to which was referred S.B. No. 2375 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC ORDER,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to protect a person from having a sexual representation distributed without the person's consent by establishing a misdemeanor criminal offense of unlawful distribution of sexual representation.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu; Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery; IMUAlliance; and two individuals.

     Your Committee finds that rapidly accelerating technology has made it easy to access and disseminate intimate images, videos, and recordings.  Unfortunately, after a relationship ends, individuals sometimes try to hurt their former partner by publishing intimate images or recordings on the Internet.  These acts violate the privacy of an individual whose image is distributed or made available through the Internet and can cause emotional distress, physical harm, academic challenges, and workplace difficulties.  Currently, there is no criminal offense that covers these acts; therefore, this measure will impose meaningful consequences on perpetrators who distribute private images with the intent to substantially harm the depicted person.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by deleting its contents and inserting language that amends section 711-1110.9, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to establish the act of knowingly disclosing an image of another identifiable person in the nude or engaging in sexual activity, without the depicted person's consent, with intent to substantially harm the depicted person with respect to that person's health, safety, business, calling, career, financial condition, reputation, or personal relationships, as an offense of violation of privacy in the first degree.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Technology and the Arts that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2375, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2375, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Technology and the Arts,

____________________________

GLENN WAKAI, Chair