2025 · Regular session · Senate bill
SB20
SB20 adds Penal Code 43.235.
Official caption: Relating to the creation of the criminal offense of possession, promotion, or production of certain obscene visual material appearing to depict a child.
Official report lists Senate author(s): Flores, Hagenbuch, Hinojosa, Juan "Chuy", Huffman, King, et al.. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.
Bill explanation published · Version and amendment review scope is stated below · Individual amendment records may not be separately annotated.
Bill highlights
Selected points from the published explanation. Follow each point to its source-linked context; conditions and limits may matter.
- SB20 adds Penal Code 43.235.
- “Obscene” is a legal test, not merely something a viewer dislikes.
- The separate AI-training provision covers using an image of an actual child who was younger than 18 when the image was made, with intent to train an AI model to produce material constituting child pornography under Section 43.26.
- The new offense is generally a state-jail felony.
- If the same conduct also violates another law, the statute allows prosecution under the new section, the other law or both.
- Signed June 20, 2025, SB20 took effect September 1, 2025.
What does it do?
A new offense covering two kinds of conduct
SB20 adds Penal Code 43.235. It covers knowingly possessing, accessing with intent to view, or promoting legally obscene visual material that appears to depict someone younger than 18 engaged in the sexual activities specified in the obscenity law. The depiction may involve an actual child, a cartoon or animation, or an AI/computer-generated image. The offense does not depend on proving that the depicted child actually exists. final law, Section 1.
“Obscene” is a legal test, not merely something a viewer dislikes. The material must meet the statutory requirements concerning prurient sexual interest judged by contemporary community standards, specified patently offensive content, and lack of serious literary, artistic, political and scientific value when taken as a whole. “Promote” includes making, selling, giving, transmitting, publishing, displaying or offering the material, among other listed conduct. Visual material includes physical and digital image formats. Penal Code 43.21, September 1, 2025 text; Penal Code 43.25, September 1, 2025 text; Penal Code 43.26, September 1, 2025 text; final law.
The separate AI-training provision covers using an image of an actual child who was younger than 18 when the image was made, with intent to train an AI model to produce material constituting child pornography under Section 43.26. It does not make every use of a child’s ordinary photo in AI training this offense: that prohibited purpose matters. Nor does its text require the training image itself to be obscene. final law, Section 43.235(b)(2).
Penalties and timing
The new offense is generally a state-jail felony. It becomes a third-degree felony with one qualifying prior conviction, or a second-degree felony with two or more. Qualifying priors are under the new section or Sections 43.23, 43.26, 43.261 or 43.262—not simply any prior conviction. final law, Section 43.235(c).
If the same conduct also violates another law, the statute allows prosecution under the new section, the other law or both. It adds the new offense to the listed circumstances in which sentences from the same criminal episode may run concurrently or consecutively; consecutive terms are permitted, not automatically required. It also adds the offense to the organized-criminal-activity list, which still requires that law’s additional combination, gang or foreign-terrorist-organization elements. final law, Sections 1–3.
Signed June 20, 2025, SB20 took effect September 1, 2025. It applies only to offenses committed on or after that date. If any element occurred earlier, the former law applies. This briefing describes SB20’s additions, not every other child-image offense or every rule governing overlapping prosecutions. Official history; final law, Sections 4–5.
What changed along the way?
All three floor amendments survived
The introduced and Senate committee texts were substantively the same. Adopted Flores Senate amendment F1 removed the original “but not both” restriction on prosecuting overlapping offenses. The enrolled law therefore allows the new charge, another applicable charge, or both. The amendment’s section-number reference contains a typo, but its quoted language and the engrossed/final change identify the affected provision. Five posted versions; final law.
Adopted Parker Senate amendment F2 added the new offense and specified related plea-agreement cases to the consecutive-sentencing exceptions. The House committee text retained the engrossed substantive provisions. Adopted Capriglione House amendment 1 added the actual-child-image AI-training offense and changed the heading to include production. All three changes are in the final law. Amendment index and dispositions; final law.
The Senate concurred in the House amendment May 26; there was no conference compromise. Section 3 also reenacts and reconciles the organized-criminal-activity list after multiple 2023 amendments. The newly added SB20 offense should not be mistaken for creation of every existing offense reprinted in that list. Official history; final law.
For the full amendment record, open the official amendment index.
Official bill versions
Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.
Who could benefit—and who could bear the costs?
Potential protection and enforcement costs
The new law gives prosecutors an explicit offense for covered obscene synthetic depictions and for the specified AI-training conduct, without requiring an actual child in every synthetic depiction. Children whose images are used for that prohibited training purpose may benefit from the added legal protection. The legislation does not quantify reductions in abuse or establish that any particular AI system, cartoon or image is unlawful; the elements still have to be proved. People charged under it face felony exposure and, in qualifying cases, enhanced or consecutive sentences. final law.
The May 23 final fiscal note says state and local fiscal effects cannot be determined because the prevalence of the newly criminalized conduct is unknown. More supervision and confinement could increase correctional demands. The Office of Court Administration and comptroller also reported indeterminate fiscal impact. This is not a finding of zero cost or a funded spending amount.
The final criminal-justice impact statement reports 2,265 arrests, 197 community-supervision placements and 269 entries into state correctional institutions in fiscal 2024 for certain existing obscenity offenses relevant to the enhancement provisions. These are separate historical measures, not a forecast of SB20 prosecutions or counts of people convicted under this new law. The statement still finds the added correctional impact indeterminate.
Review scope: complete enrolled text, history, five posted versions, all three amendment texts and outcomes, four fiscal postings and three criminal-justice impact statements. The incorporated definitions were checked against official date-specific statutes before and on September 1, 2025. Other 2025 laws separately changed Section 43.26; those changes are not attributed to SB20.
Official sources
- Bill history and latest recorded action
- Bill versions, analyses and fiscal notes
- Action history and votes
- Amendment index
Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.
