Alabama Sen. Gerald Allen, R-Tuscaloosa, has prefiled a bill that would expand the state’s definition of sexual extortion to include what is often referred to as “revenge porn,” making it punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Currently, the crime of sexual extortion in Alabama only applies to those who knowingly cause or attempt to cause another person to engage in a sexual act or to produce any sexual content under threat of injury to the body, property, or reputation of any person, according to the bill’s text.

It is a Class B felony, punishable with up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $30,000.

If Allen’s bill, SB35, is passed, this punishment would also apply to any Alabamian who “knowingly threatens to release or transmit any photograph, digital image, video, film, or other recording of any individual, whether recognizable or not, engaged in any act of sexually explicit conduct in order to compel or attempt to compel the victim to do any act or refrain from doing any act against his or her will,” otherwise known as revenge porn.

The bill is currently pending action in the Senate Committee on Judiciary.

Several other states have cracked down on online sex crimes in recent years, including Georgia, which passed a law to make revenge porn a felony in 2021.