republic-os/legislation/us/states/de/151/hb-428.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO OFFENSES RELATING TO CHILDREN."
description: "All too often, persons who produce or transmit images of partially nude children cannot be prosecuted under our current statutes because our current statutes only criminalize images of a child engaging in a sexual act or if the child is nude. This bill seeks to remedy this problem by adding “partial nudity” to the definition of “prohibited sexual act”. By doing so, this bill criminalizes the photographing or filming of a partially nude child as well as the production, publication, transmission, selling, distribution, and dissemination of photographs or images of partially nude children if the child in such image or photograph is scantily clothed, posed provocatively, or otherwise posed with the obvious intent to arose, and such image of photograph is intended for the purpose of sexual stimulation or gratification of any individual who may view such image or photograph. Under this bill, such crime would be a class D felony punishable by up to an 8-year jail sentence."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "151"
identifier: "HB 428"
citation: "Delaware HB 428 (151)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Nicole Poore", "Valerie Longhurst"]
version_count: 2
action_count: 8
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2022-05-17"
last_action: "2022-08-19"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/a4528c7d-063a-4922-a74c-421e46e12666"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=109527"
source_hash: "9ba77d8e59cd329a4c37a5768701003cf51c7e3490c28ea6c96e3bf2a9672373"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-de"]
---

# Delaware HB 428 (151) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO OFFENSES RELATING TO CHILDREN.

All too often, persons who produce or transmit images of partially nude children cannot be prosecuted under our current statutes because our current statutes only criminalize images of a child engaging in a sexual act or if the child is nude. This bill seeks to remedy this problem by adding “partial nudity” to the definition of “prohibited sexual act”. By doing so, this bill criminalizes the photographing or filming of a partially nude child as well as the production, publication, transmission, selling, distribution, and dissemination of photographs or images of partially nude children if the child in such image or photograph is scantily clothed, posed provocatively, or otherwise posed with the obvious intent to arose, and such image of photograph is intended for the purpose of sexual stimulation or gratification of any individual who may view such image or photograph. Under this bill, such crime would be a class D felony punishable by up to an 8-year jail sentence.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=109527&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB428)
2. **HA 1 to HB 428** (committee substitute) — [source](http://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GeneratePdfDocument?legislationId=129852&legislationTypeId=5&docTypeId=2)

## Votes

- SM — **21–0** (pass) · upper
- SM — **41–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Nicole Poore — primary (person)
- Valerie Longhurst — primary (person)
- Brian Pettyjohn — cosponsor (person)
- Bruce C. Ennis — cosponsor (person)
- Bryan Townsend — cosponsor (person)
- Bryant L. Richardson — cosponsor (person)
- Colin Bonini — cosponsor (person)
- Darius J. Brown — cosponsor (person)
- Dave G. Lawson — cosponsor (person)
- David L. Wilson — cosponsor (person)
- David P. Sokola — cosponsor (person)
- Debra Heffernan — cosponsor (person)
- Edward S. Osienski — cosponsor (person)
- Ernesto B. Lopez — cosponsor (person)
- Gerald W. Hocker — cosponsor (person)
- John "Jack" Walsh — cosponsor (person)
- John L. Mitchell — cosponsor (person)
- Kendra Johnson — cosponsor (person)
- Kimberly Williams — cosponsor (person)
- Kyle Evans Gay — cosponsor (person)
- Laura V. Sturgeon — cosponsor (person)
- Marie Pinkney — cosponsor (person)
- Ruth Briggs King — cosponsor (person)
- S. Elizabeth Lockman — cosponsor (person)
- Sarah McBride — cosponsor (person)
- Spiros Mantzavinos — cosponsor (person)
- Stephanie L. Hansen — cosponsor (person)
- Stephen Smyk — cosponsor (person)
- Trey Paradee — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2022-05-17** Introduced and Assigned to Public Safety & Homeland Security Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2022-06-07** Reported Out of Committee (Public Safety & Homeland Security) in House with 4 Favorable, 4 On Its Merits `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2022-06-28** Amendment HA 1 to HB 428 - Passed In House by Voice Vote `amendment-passage`
- **2022-06-28** Passed By House. Votes: 41 YES `passage`
- **2022-06-28** Assigned to Executive Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2022-06-29** Reported Out of Committee (Executive) in Senate with 1 Favorable, 5 On Its Merits `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2022-06-29** Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES `passage`
- **2022-08-19** Signed by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/a4528c7d-063a-4922-a74c-421e46e12666`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).