Texas Penal Code 21.16: Charges, Penalties, and Civil Suits

Texas Penal Code Section 21.16, the Relationship Privacy Act, makes it a state jail felony to share, threaten to share, or promote someone’s intimate visual material without their consent. A conviction carries 180 days to two years in a state jail and a fine of up to $10,000, and the person depicted can also sue in civil court for damages and a court order forcing the material down.¹

What the Statute Criminalizes

Section 21.16 contains three separate offenses. Subsection (b) covers the person who actually discloses the images. Subsection (c) covers someone who uses the threat of disclosure as leverage. Subsection (d) covers the operator of a website or forum that promotes the material. Each offense stands on its own, and each is punished at the same level.

Proving Nonconsensual Disclosure

For a conviction under Section 21.16(b), prosecutors have to prove four elements. The person shared visual material showing someone’s intimate parts or sexual activity without the depicted person’s effective consent and with intent to harm them. The person knew or had reason to believe the material was created or obtained in circumstances where the depicted person reasonably expected it to stay private. The disclosure actually caused harm. And the disclosure revealed the depicted person’s identity, whether through accompanying information or through responses from third parties who recognized them.¹

The identification element reaches further than many people assume. An image that doesn’t show someone’s face can still violate the statute if a caption, a tagged location, or comments from others identify the person.

Consent to be photographed is not consent to have the photograph shared. The statute treats creation and distribution as separate questions, so a person who willingly posed for an intimate image during a relationship has not waived any rights over where that image goes later.

Threatening to Disclose

Section 21.16(c) covers what is commonly called sextortion. The offense is complete when a person intentionally threatens to share intimate images of someone without consent, and the threat is made to obtain a benefit. The benefit can be money, sexual favors, continued cooperation in a dispute, or any other advantage the person is trying to extract.¹

The images do not have to be released. The threat combined with the intent to gain something is the crime.

Website Operators and Promotion

Section 21.16(d) targets the people behind the platforms. The offense is committed by knowingly promoting intimate visual material of the type described in the disclosure offense on a website or forum the person owns or operates.¹

“Promote” is defined broadly and includes selling, distributing, publishing, exhibiting, advertising, or agreeing to do any of those things. The operator does not need to be the person who originally obtained the images; knowingly hosting and spreading them is enough.

Penalties and What a Conviction Leaves Behind

All three offenses are state jail felonies. The sentencing range is 180 days to two years in a state jail, and a judge can add a fine of up to $10,000.²

Community supervision is possible depending on the circumstances, but the felony itself stays on the record. Under the Texas Occupations Code, licensing authorities can deny, revoke, or suspend a professional license when a conviction directly relates to the duties of the licensed occupation. That reaches careers in education, healthcare, law enforcement, and other licensed fields.³

One boundary worth knowing: a conviction under Section 21.16 is not on the list of reportable offenses that trigger mandatory sex offender registration under Chapter 62 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The felony record alone, however, is enough to create long-term barriers to employment, housing, and professional advancement.

Affirmative Defenses

The statute carves out protection for people who handle intimate material for legitimate reasons. The defenses apply to both the disclosure offense and the promotion offense, and cover disclosure or promotion made in the course of:

law enforcement work or medical treatment;
reporting unlawful activity to authorities; or
a legal proceeding, when the law permits or requires it.

These are affirmative defenses, so the defendant carries the burden of proving the defense applies. The prosecutor does not have to disprove them as part of the initial case.¹

Suing the Person Who Shared the Images

A criminal case is not the only option. Chapter 98B of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, created by the same Relationship Privacy Act, lets the person depicted in nonconsensual intimate material sue the person who disclosed or promoted it.⁴

A successful plaintiff can recover actual damages such as lost income, therapy costs, or relocation expenses; exemplary damages for particularly harmful conduct; and attorney’s fees and court costs. Courts can also order the defendant to stop sharing the material and remove it from any platform they control, which is often the most immediately valuable remedy because it stops the ongoing harm while the lawsuit proceeds.

Texas courts may allow victims to proceed under a pseudonym in privacy-related civil cases, keeping the real name out of public court records.

Federal Civil Action

Since 2022, there is also a federal option. The Violence Against Women Act reauthorization added 15 U.S.C. § 6851, which allows anyone whose intimate images were shared without consent in a way that affects interstate commerce to sue in federal court. Nearly all internet-based sharing crosses state lines, so this remedy is broadly available.⁵

The federal statute lets a plaintiff choose between actual damages and liquidated damages of $150,000, whichever is more favorable, plus attorney’s fees and litigation costs. Federal courts can issue injunctions and maintain the plaintiff’s anonymity through pseudonym protections written into the statute. The exceptions mirror the Texas affirmative defenses: good-faith disclosures to law enforcement, disclosures during legal proceedings, disclosures for medical education or treatment, and reporting of unlawful content are shielded. Consent to create the image is not consent to distribute it.⁵

Deadline to Prosecute

The state has three years from the date of the offense to prosecute a state jail felony under Section 21.16, under the general felony limitations period in Texas law.⁶

These cases often surface well after the initial sharing. A victim might not learn the images were posted for months, and building a prosecutable case takes additional time. Reporting the conduct to law enforcement promptly protects both the timeline and the digital evidence that can disappear as platforms remove content.

1
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code Section 21.16 – Unlawful Disclosure or Promotion of Intimate Visual Material
2
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code Section 12.35 – State Jail Felony Punishment
3
Texas State Law Library. Employment – Restrictions After a Criminal Conviction
4
Texas Legislature Online. S.B. No. 1135
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 6851 – Civil Action Relating to Disclosure of Intimate Images
6
State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Art 12.01 – Felonies