Tennessee Senate Bill SB0335

Tennessee 2025-2026 Regular Session

• Introduced: 1/27/25
• Engrossed: 3/3/25
• Enrolled: 3/11/25
• Passed: 3/25/25
• Chaptered: 4/8/25

Caption

AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 28; Title 29; Title 36, Chapter 3, Part 6; Title 39 and Title 40, Chapter 2, relative to invasion of privacy.

Summary

SB0335, known as the "Voyeurism Victims Act," expands Tennessee law to address privacy crimes and the remedies available to victims of those offenses. The bill defines "disseminate" for purposes of the unlawful photography statute as transferring, publishing, or otherwise making accessible, and it tolls the criminal statute of limitations for invasion-of-privacy prosecutions while a defendant conceals the crime until the victim discovers it. The measure also broadens the state’s order-of-protection framework. It adds victims of "observation without consent" and "unlawful photography" to the list of people who may seek relief, and it updates multiple provisions in Title 36 to treat those victims similarly to domestic abuse, stalking, sexual assault, and human trafficking victims. The bill also creates new statutory definitions for "observation without consent victim" and "unlawful photography victim" and makes conforming changes throughout the domestic violence and protective-order statutes.

Impact

The bill amends Tennessee Code Annotated Titles 28, 29, 36, 39, and 40, with the most significant changes in Title 36’s order-of-protection provisions and Title 39’s invasion-of-privacy offenses. It expands eligibility for protective orders, modifies criminal procedure by tolling limitations periods for concealed privacy crimes, and clarifies the meaning of dissemination in the unlawful photography statute. The practical effect is to give victims of voyeurism-related offenses access to the same or similar civil protections already available to other categories of victims.

Sentiment

The bill appears to have enjoyed strong bipartisan support and little visible opposition. It passed the Senate Judiciary Committee 9-0 with amendment(s), then passed the Senate floor 32-0 on third consideration and later passed regular calendar third consideration 92-0. The unanimous votes suggest broad agreement that the bill addresses a gap in victim protections and modernizes the law for privacy-related offenses.

Contention

No major controversy is evident in the available record. The main policy choices were technical but important: whether to extend protective-order eligibility to victims of observation without consent and unlawful photography, and whether to toll the limitations period when a defendant conceals the offense. Any debate likely centered on the scope of the new victim categories and the criminal-procedure change, but the unanimous committee and floor votes indicate those issues were not strongly contested.