Criminal Law - Child Pornography - Prohibitions and Penalties
Summary
HB670 expands Maryland’s child pornography laws by creating a new offense for knowingly possessing and intentionally retaining, or knowingly and intentionally accessing and viewing, certain visual depictions of minors engaged in sadomasochistic abuse, sexual conduct, or sexual excitement. The bill covers both actual children under 16 and computer-generated images that are indistinguishable from an actual and identifiable child, while excluding drawings, cartoons, sculptures, and paintings from that definition. It also preserves an existing exception for a parent’s possession of nude images of their own child, unless the images depict prohibited sexual conduct or sadomasochistic abuse.
The bill also adds a separate offense for possessing large quantities of prohibited images, making it a felony to violate the underlying child pornography provisions with 100 or more images, and a more serious felony to do so with any image depicting a child under 13. These new offenses carry up to 10 years’ imprisonment and may be sentenced separately from, and consecutively or concurrently with, other related crimes. The bill takes effect October 1, 2026, and amends the Criminal Law Article, specifically sections 11-207 and 11-208, while adding new section 11-208.2.
Impact
HB670 would broaden the scope of Maryland’s criminal prohibitions to reach not only possession but also intentional viewing of certain child sexual abuse material, including qualifying computer-generated images. It increases penalties for high-volume possession and for material involving children under 13, creating additional felony exposure and potentially longer aggregate sentences. The bill would affect defendants, prosecutors, law enforcement, and courts by expanding charging options and clarifying how image counts are calculated for sentencing and offense grading.
Sentiment
Based on the bill text and available context, the measure appears to be a law-enforcement and child-protection bill with a punitive focus, aimed at strengthening penalties and closing perceived gaps in existing child pornography statutes. There are no recorded committee transcripts or votes in the provided materials, so no formal opposition or support is documented here. The overall posture of the bill is strongly protective of minors and aligned with tougher criminal enforcement.
Contention
The main policy issues likely raised by HB670 are the expansion from possession to intentional viewing, the treatment of computer-generated images as contraband when they are indistinguishable from real children, and the enhanced penalties for image counts and for depictions of children under 13. Potential concerns could include evidentiary and constitutional questions about proving intent, defining “indistinguishable” images, and distinguishing unlawful material from protected artistic or noncommercial depictions. However, no specific objections or sponsors’ rebuttals are included in the provided discussion materials.