Senate Judiciary Committee Amendment
S 996 - Session 125 (2023-2024)
AI Child Abuse

The Committee on Judiciary proposes the following amendment (SJ-996.MB0003S):

Amend the bill, as and if amended, SECTION 1, by striking the first undesignated paragraph in Section 16-15-390 and inserting:

 Section 16-15-390. (A) As used in this section:

Amend the bill further, SECTION 1, by striking Section 16-15-390(D) and inserting:

 (D) The offense is a misdemeanor to be heard by the family court if the person charged under this section is a minor, and the minor has no prior adjudication under this statute or for any offense for which a person may included in the sex offender registry. The family court may order behavioral health counseling from an appropriate agency or provider, as a condition of adjudicating a minor.
 (E) It is not a required element of any offense under this section that the minor depicted actually exists.
 (F) This section does not apply to an employee of a law enforcement agency, including the State Law Enforcement Division, a prosecuting agency, including the South Carolina Attorney General's Office, or the South Carolina Department of Corrections who, while acting within the employee's official capacity in the course of an investigation or criminal proceeding, is in possession of material that contains a visual representation of a minor engaging in sexual activity or appearing in a state of sexually explicit nudity when a reasonable person would infer the purpose is sexual stimulation. An employee's official capacity in the course of such investigation or criminal proceeding includes making materials available for inspection to the defendant's counsel in response to discovery requests.

Amend the bill further, SECTION 2, by striking Section 23-3-430(C)(2)(i) and inserting:

   (i) obscene visual representations of child sexual abuse (Section 16-15-390). If the person is under eighteen years of age and was adjudicated in the family court, the adjudicated minor is not an offender and is not required to register pursuant to the provisions of this article.