A controversial bill seeking to address teen sexting failed in a close committee vote Tuesday, with lawmakers citing concerns about the legislation’s potential impact on victims and whether or not the practice should be barred by law.

The House Public Health Care and Human Services Committee rejected House Bill 1058 by a 7-6 vote.

The committee’s members, however, left open the possibility it could be brought up again later in the session, which ends May 11.

The bipartisan legislation sought to make Colorado one of about two dozen states with a juvenile sexting-specific misdemeanor or petty offense law.

Activists, however, said that while the bill was a good start, it didn’t do enough to protect victims. They said it also vilified the consensual exchange of nude images and tried to halt a practice that cannot be stopped.

Ultimately, legislators embraced those concerns.

“We’re legislating on something that we think is kind of icky,” said Rep. Max Tyler, a Democrat from Lakewood. “I don’t think we understand how important that is or not important that is.”

Tyler added that he didn’t think the legislation was a solution.

The bill’s main sponsor, Rep. Yuelin Willet, R-Grand Junction, warned before the legislation was rejected that lawmakers were effectively kicking the issue down the road.

Current statutes can hand a teen who sexts a felony child pornography conviction that comes with a mandatory sex offender registration and a potential lifetime criminal record.

Authorities say the law, as it stands, offers limited options when it comes to weighing the seriousness of the issue and the weight of a potential conviction.

Willet drafted the legislation after the sexting scandal that involved scores of middle school and high school students in Cañon City, who took and traded nude photos of one another.

At a news conference announcing no charges would be filed against the children involved, school district Superintendent George Welsh said laws force prosecutors to use analog rules to deal with a digital issue.