PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Social media posts, sexually explicit or otherwise, that cause someone's online embarrassment or insult, would become crimes under a set of bills being advanced by Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin.

The bill to prohibit so-called "revenge porn," posting nude or sexually-explicit images of someone without their knowledge and consent, has become an annual goal for Kilmartin, who says Rhode Island is becoming an outlier in not having such laws on the books.

But another bill would target a wide range of social media activity that makes people "feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed, or molested."

Unlike current state "cyber-stalking" laws, which require police to prove a pattern of harassing behavior, someone could be prosecuted under the new Kilmartin bill for a single post if at least two others pile on with "separate non-continuous acts of unconsented contact" with the victim. The original post would have to be made with the intent to cause emotional distress and be expected to cause distress in a "reasonable person."

"In the new age of the Internet and social media, once a harassing statement, image or video is posted online it can be there forever," Kilmartin said. "In addition, others persons may respond to or repost the harassing statement, image or video, which would continue to harass and seriously harm the victim. Unfortunately, the current law provides no protection to victims of this type of harassment as such behavior is not be considered a 'course of conduct.'"

The bill, sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Frank Lombardi, D-Cranston, and in the House by Rep. Kathleen Fogarty, D-South Kingstown, was modeled after legislation in Michigan, according to Kilmartin spokeswoman Amy Kempe.

A cyber-harassment conviction under the bill would be a misdemeanor punishable with up to a year in prison or a $1,000 fine.

Kilmartin supported a bill last year that attempted to address the same social media harassment issue simply by eliminating "pattern of conduct" from the existing cyber-stalking law.

That bill was held for further study.

The "revenge porn" bill has made more progress through the legislature, being passed by the state Senate in each of the last two years, only never to make it out of committee in the House of Representatives.

Both the cyber-harassment bill and the revenge porn bill are opposed by the Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union on free-speech grounds and that the bills could have harmful unintended consequences.

"Someone could be arrested for re-tweeting a photo sent to them," said Hillary Davis, policy associate at the Rhode Island ACLU. "The problem is you can't always be responsible for the actions of other people and shouldn't go to jail for their actions. Is someone take something and twists it around, should you be responsible?"

How often revenge porn or cyber-harassment of the kind addressed in Kilmartin's bill actually happens in Rhode Island is unclear.

Kempe said Kilmartin became aware of the issue when police departments brought cases to his attention, but he was frustrated that the law made prosecution difficult.