1 week Ago
COLUMBIA — South Carolina is the only state in the country to not have a revenge porn law. With six days left in the 2025 legislative session, some lawmakers remain hopeful that a bill outlawing revenge porn can cross the finish line. This isn't the first year they've attempted to get one passed.
Revenge porn is when someone extorts or takes revenge by blackmail on someone through the sharing of nude photos, videos or messages. The circumstances range from teens to adults, but the intent to harm and blackmail the person remains. Lawmakers passed a sextortion bill last year named Gavin's Law .
The bill was in light of Rock Hill Republican Rep. Brandon Guffey’s 17-year-old son, who died by suicide after scammers posed as a college girl and threatened to release explicit photos of him unless he sent them money. The sextortion law covers situations where a person demands money or items not to release an explicit message or photo.
The revenge porn bill under consideration now differs by specifying the action is with the intent to harm or take revenge through blackmail. Over the last three years, at least five bills outlawing revenge porn have stalled in the Statehouse, dying each time in House or Senate committees. None of the bills have made it to a floor vote until now.
The revenge porn law passed the House on April 22 by a 108-0 margin and is currently in the Senate Judiciary Committee. But there's no guarantee it'll move quickly enough to become law this year. The sponsor of the bill, Rep.
Chris Wooten, R-Lexington, said the revenge porn bill that passed the House is the same as one he sponsored last year. "We’ve found out that there is so much with technology these days and the way things are going, this is not just as simple as sending a picture," Wooten said. "It becomes a vicious, vicious battle to stop.
" Revenge porn can also be the start of where human trafficking begins, he said, explaining situations when the person circulating the photos uses them as leverage against the person in them. The bill makes the crime a felony and has penalties with a fine of up to $5,000 and five years imprisonment, or both. Guffey said the bill is well overdue.
He said there had been opposition in the past to passing a revenge porn bill. People would argue that the victim should never have sent photos or messages in the first place. But with no opposition to the bill April 22, awareness surrounding the issue has definitely changed, he said.
"This just shows the mind shift compared to where we were just a few years ago," Guffey said. Gavin's law opened up a conversation, Guffey said. He deals with phone calls daily from across the country from people who have been or are being extorted.
A few months ago, almost all the calls were kids. Now, it's parents. "That means the kids are at least brave enough to go to their parents and have the conversation and the parents are more understanding," Guffey said.
Wooten said he was unsure if the bill would pass through the Senate this session. It was a priority this year, he said, as the Statehouse has cracked down on laws that are tough on crime. If the Statehouse hadn't had all the "late night" issues on the agenda this year, like energy, tort reform and private school vouchers, it probably would've already passed, he added.
Sen. Daryl Jackson, D-Columbia, also had sponsored a revenge porn bill for the last few years. “When you’re the only state that hasn’t done it, it certainly doesn’t mean it's because you're the smartest,” Jackson said.
“I think it says a lot about our state.” It’s going to be tough to get it passed this year with the time remaining, Jackson said. It should have been done five years ago, he added.
“South Carolina is kind of unique with that, we are one of two states that does not have a hate crime law,” Jackson said. “I have pointed that out again and again and it has not seemed to phase my colleagues. I just hope that they see this as something that is necessary.
” Lawmakers are also trying to pass a litany of other bills having to do with AI and child safety. Two Senate bills, S. 28 and S.
29 , have to do with “morphed pornography of identifiable children,” or MPIC, and obscene visual representations of child abuse. Both these bills have passed the Senate and are in House committees..
