WHAT THIS BILL REGULATES · 1 REQUIREMENT TYPE
How Is This Bill Enforced
Verbatim statutory text on the left; plain-language analysis and a per-section checklist on the right. Numbered markers cross-link to the matching checklist row.
A(2) 1 It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly and intentionally create any videographic or still image using artificial intelligence of any nonconsenting person if that person is totally nude, performing sexual acts, clad in undergarments, or in a state of undress so as to expose the genitals, pubic area, buttocks, or female breast, and such videographic or still image appears to be or is intended to appear to be such nonconsenting person.
B The provisions of this section shall not apply to any videographic or still image created by any means whatsoever by (i) law-enforcement officers pursuant to a criminal investigation which is otherwise lawful or (ii) correctional officials and local or regional jail officials for security purposes or for investigations of alleged misconduct involving a person committed to the Department of Corrections or to a local or regional jail, or to any sound recording of an oral conversation made as a result of any videotaping or filming pursuant to Chapter 6 (§ 19.2-61 et seq.) of Title 19.2.
C A violation of subsection A shall be punishable as a Class 1 misdemeanor.
D A violation of subsection A involving a nonconsenting person under the age of 18 shall be punishable as a Class 6 felony.
E Where it is alleged in the warrant, information, or indictment on which the person is convicted and found by the court or jury trying the case that the person has previously been convicted within the 10-year period immediately preceding the offense charged of two or more of the offenses specified in this section, each such offense occurring on a different date, and when such offenses were not part of a common act, transaction, or scheme, and such person has been at liberty as defined in § 53.1-151 between each conviction, he shall be guilty of a Class 6 felony.
The bill's operative addition is new subdivision A.2 of § 18.2-386.1, which extends Virginia's existing voyeurism statute to cover AI-generated intimate imagery. Where subdivision A.1 addresses images captured by a recording device in settings where the subject has a reasonable expectation of privacy, subdivision A.2 addresses images created using artificial intelligence. The AI provision does not require a physical recording device or a privacy-expectation setting — instead, it requires that the image depict a nonconsenting person in a state of nudity, performing sexual acts, or in a state of undress, and that the image appears to be or is intended to appear to be the nonconsenting person. The knowledge and intent standard (knowingly and intentionally) applies to both subdivisions.
The existing penalty structure in subsections C through E applies equally to violations of the new AI provision: Class 1 misdemeanor for adult victims, Class 6 felony for minor victims, and Class 6 felony for repeat offenders with two or more prior convictions within ten years.