Sexting has become a common practice among adults in the U.S. That is when you use electronic communication — usually your cell phone — to send sexually explicit messages, photos, or videos to someone else. In one study, 88% of adults said they have done it at least once in their life. In many instances, it may be a harmless activity, but if you’re not careful, you may be charged with a sex crime in Utah.
Utah law makes distributing pornographic material illegal. If you give pornographic material to another person, that is a third-degree felony, meaning possible prison time of up to five years and fines of up to $5,000. With this crime, there is a mandatory fine of $1,000.
If you’re a minor between 16 and 17 years old, it is a class A misdemeanor, meaning up to 364 days in jail and $2,500 in possible fines. For people under 16, it is a class B misdemeanor, meaning up to six months in jail and $1,000 in fines.
Utah law defines “pornographic” as anything that fits these three criteria:
Sexting could in theory be considered distributing pornographic material. However, because of the subjectivity of this definition, you aren’t likely to get in trouble for it as long as all parties are over 18 years old and everyone consents to it.
If someone sends you a sexually explicit image of themselves, you cannot legally share it with anyone else without that person’s permission. This is a crime called distribution of an intimate image, and it’s a class A misdemeanor.
The definition of “intimate image” in Utah has less leeway than the one about pornographic material. It is any image that shows one of the following three things:
This crime applies to situations in which there was a reasonable expectation that the material would remain private, and the person in the images would find it distressing to have their images shared. For example, if your partner sends you a nude photo, you cannot send that to anyone else or upload it to a website, unless they say you can.
However, if the image is a screenshot from a movie, this law does not apply (though you might be subject to copyright laws). The actor agreed to be in the scene, knowing that it would be widely distributed. There was no expectation of privacy.
If you are sending any sexually explicit content, it’s important to make sure that you and the other person are over 18. Utah has various laws that make sexting with a minor illegal.
Lewdness in front of a child is when you expose genitals or a female breast to a child under 14 years old. It’s also when you perform sexual intercourse, masturbate, or simulate sexual acts in that child’s presence.
This can be in a public place. It can also happen in a private space where you knew it would cause alarm, and your intention was sexual arousal or gratification of either you or the child.
A first-time offense of this is a class A misdemeanor, and a third-degree felony for any time you commit this crime afterward.
If you commit this offense in front of someone over 14 years old, that is considered lewdness, which is a class B misdemeanor for a first offense. It’s a third-degree felony if you commit this crime two or more times.
These laws don’t explicitly reference text messaging, but they still apply if you send sexually explicit images to a child. In fact, if you send those images to an adult without their consent, you can still get charged with lewdness.
Enticing a minor is a law in Utah that explicitly mentions electronic communication. It’s when you use technology to try getting a minor under 18 to engage in any kind of sexual activity with you.
The severity of the charge depends on the situation. It is one level below whatever crime you intended to do. For example, if you were going to engage in a first degree felony rape of a child, the charge would be a second degree felony.
If you were successful in your communications, you may face charges for the act itself as well as enticing a minor. This means you’d face prison time for the first degree felony — which has a mandatory minimum sentencing requirement of 25 years — plus the second degree felony, which can be one to 15 years on top of that.
It’s important to note that enticing a minor applies whether the person on the other end of the conversation was a minor or not. For example, if it’s a 30-year-old police officer engaging with you in a sting operation, you can still be charged with this crime.
According to advocacy group INHOPE, what many people may know as child pornography should actually be called child sexual abuse material or CSAM. The reasoning is that the term “pornography” connotes two consenting adults. The term CSAM implies that children cannot actually consent to sexual activity.
In Utah, having access to any kind of CSAM is considered exploitation of a minor, no matter what your intention was or how you got it. The only exception are people who have access to it for work duties, such as a police officer who is gathering evidence. It is a second-degree felony.
There is no language in Utah’s exploitation of a minor law that specifies that the person owning the material is 18 years old or over. In other words, minors can be charged with the crime as well.
So if you and your partner are under 18, and you text each other graphic images, that can be considered a violation of this law. However, the law does allow a way to defend yourself from legal consequences if you meet the following criteria:
Being convicted of a sex crime can get you in a lot of trouble. The police and the prosecutors who are working on the case are only interested in making sure justice gets served. They don’t have your interests at heart.
That’s why it’s important to hire an attorney. You need someone who knows just as much about the law as prosecutors. A good defense attorney will be able to look at what evidence the state has against you and tell you whether it’s actually compelling. If the best course of action is to plead guilty, your attorney can work with the prosecutors to get the best outcome possible.
You’ll want an attorney who has been practicing the law for years. That means they’ve learned all the lessons they need to take on your case. You’ll find that with Brown, Bradshaw & Moffat’s Kristin Wilson, Michael Holje and Ann Taliaferro.
