Using sexually explicit photos to blackmail minors and others in South Carolina could now land someone in prison for up to 20 years — a new change sparked by the death of a York County lawmaker’s son last year.
Gov. Henry McMaster on Thursday signed into a law a bill that makes sexual extortion or “sextortion” — the act of blackmailing someone after luring them to send sexually explicit photos of themselves via text or social media — a felony offense which becomes aggravated if the victim is a minor.
“Gavin’s Law” was sponsored by freshman state Rep. Brandon Guffey, R-York, whose 17-year-old-son, Gavin, died by suicide last summer after falling victim to an online sextortion scheme.
“With the signing of ‘Gavin’s Law,’ despicable criminals like the ones responsible for the Guffey family’s tragic loss will now know that they will go to jail for a very long time for preying on our state’s innocent young people,” McMaster said Thursday in a statement to The State newspaper.
Last summer, someone pretending to be a college-age woman asked Guffey’s son to send illicit photos of himself. After the pictures were exchanged, Guffey said Gavin and his family were extorted for money, which eventually led to his death.
“The most important thing to me is raising awareness (about sextortion) because a lot of these crimes happen overseas,” Guffey told The State Thursday.
Three men from Nigeria were recently charged in the sextortion death of a teen in Michigan, according to CBS News. Similar to Gavin’s case, these men requested that the victim send nude images. Upon receiving the images, the men created collages that included them alongside photos of the victim’s friends and family, and threatened to send the collages to friends, family and classmates unless the victim paid them money.
Minors falling victim to sex extortion are on the raise nationally with more than 3,000 cases in 2022, according to the FBI.
To address this increasing threat to minors, South Carolina’s “Gavin’s Law” increases penalties for anyone sexually extorting a minor by allowing for up to a 20-year prison sentence on a first offense. If the person convicted is a minor, however, the charge is reduced to a misdemeanor and referred to family court, which could order the minor to undergo behavioral counseling.
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“The last thing that I wanted, just as my son made the mistake of sending the image, is another 17-year-old looking at 15 years in jail because he said or did something stupid,” Guffey said, referring to an earlier version of the bill which included a 15-year mandatory minimum sentence. “I don’t believe in taking any kid’s life away over something like that.”
While commended by his colleagues for successfully pushing the bill through during his first legislative session, Guffey said he couldn’t have done it alone.
“No freshman legislator is going to be able to get something done like that year one by themselves,” Guffey said. “We all gathered around my desk and talked about how important this (bill) was every Tuesday before we started session, and how we could get it progressing.”