James T. Woods Act
Current understanding
The James T. Woods Act is a federal legislative package aimed at expanding criminal law targeting online child sexual exploitation. It would direct revisions to U.S. Sentencing Guidelines for child sexual abuse material (CSAM) offenses, create new offenses for online coercion of minors to commit self-harm or other harm, and criminalize sextortion threats that involve CSAM. The practical effect would be heavier and more explicit federal penalties for offenders using online platforms to coerce or extort minors, while raising the usual civil-liberties questions about scope, mens rea, and platform interaction that accompany expansions of federal criminal jurisdiction.
Evidence log
- 2026-01-13 — Coercion and Sexual Abuse Free Environment Act: cross-connection with csafe-act-coercion-minors: Both create new federal offenses for online/coercive exploitation of minors, with overlapping conduct categories (sexually explicit conduct, sextortion-adjacent coercion). (novelty: 3)
- 2026-03-02 — James T. Woods Act: cross-connection with stop-csam-act: Both expand federal responses to CSAM: STOP CSAM focuses on platform reporting duties and victim civil remedies, while the Woods Act focuses on sentencing enhancements and new offender-facing offenses for coercion and sextortion. (novelty: 3)