CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A legislative committee plans to introduce a handful of bills during the upcoming legislative session that focus on crimes against children.
Del. Barbara Fleischauer, D-Monongalia, said one of the bills will propose changes to the child pornography statute by adding three felony crimes. One of those focuses on possession of child pornography.
“We changed the language because some people are doing a search for child pornography and then they are using a service that allows them to look at the images without downloading them,” Fleischauer said. “We want to make sure our term possession shows criminal intent.”
Another bill would create new felony crimes in connection with the number of images.
“We would be adding a new provision that says if people have over 500 (images) you can charge them with a felony,” the delegate said. “Some have thousands of images.”
The bill will be introduced during the 60-day regular session that begins Jan. 8.