With identical votes of 33-0, the Missouri Senate modified a "revenge porn" bill and sent it back to the House.
The bill would create two new crimes: "nonconsensual dissemination of private sexual images" and "threatening the nonconsensual dissemination of private sexual images."
"This bill comes before us at a time when life is changing - we have modern technology, we have the smart phones, we have easy access to video and pictures that are being taken on a regular basis," Senate sponsor Gary Romine, R-Farmington, explained, "and some of these are being used in nefarious ways to harm a former spouse or a former relationship, and there's really no standard law that provides for prosecution of this illicit activity.
"What this bill is about is to make sure that we have a path forward, that we have a law in the statutes that provides prosecutors an opportunity to protect the victim - those who have had photographs taken of them while (they were) in an intimate relationship with someone they had a personal relationship with - and then the relationships have fallen apart and (they have the pictures) used against them at a later date."
Sen. Jill Schupp, D-Creve Coeur, successfully added an emergency clause, so the laws can go into effect as soon as the governor signs the bill.
"I appreciate this bill making it through the process," she told Romine. "(The emergency clause) is to ensure that public welfare, health and safety is protected as we move forward."
Romine agreed: "I think this needs to be in effect as quickly as possible."
Sen. Rob Schaaf, R-St. Joseph, wondered why the bill didn't include victims under 18.
"Why wouldn't you want to broaden this rather than narrow it?" he asked. "I just don't know what the logic would be for limiting this law."
Romine said: "We want to make sure that we are as specific about what we're trying to do as we can be with this law.
"Minors are protected under a different section (and) this is dealing with consenting adults and what their anticipation of protection of privacy should be."
He added: "I want to make sure that we protect all individuals, no matter what their age, from sexually explicit material being out there which could probably ruin their life for the rest of their life."
The House sponsor, state Rep. Jim Neely, R-Cameron, watched the Senate's debate Wednesday morning and agreed with the Senate's changes.
Because of those changes, the House must accept them or ask for a conference committee before the measure finally can be passed and sent to the governor.