House action is pending on similar legislation.

"This finally provides some relief in law ... for someone who has had private sexual images disseminated without their approval," Sen. Barb Goodwin, D-Columbia Heights, said.

Revenge porn is the name given to the situation in which a person makes online posts of pornographic images after a relationship ends, but the bill is broader than that.

“This is an emerging nationwide issue and is a case when technology can be ahead of policymakers’ ability to legislate it,” Rep. John Lesch, D-St. Paul, said. “The vote taken by the Senate today illustrates the urgency of addressing this problem."

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A year ago, the Minnesota Appeals Court struck down Minnesota’s criminal defamation law, which had been used in Isanti County to prosecute a case of revenge porn.





An earlier version of this article contained incorrect information. The first name of Rep. Lesch was wrong.