Distributing a Private Image: Alabama Penalties and Defenses

Distributing a private image in Alabama is a crime under Alabama Code Section 13A-6-240. A first offense is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $6,000. Any repeat conviction is a Class C felony, carrying one year and one day to ten years in prison and a fine of up to $15,000. Prosecutors do not have to prove the sender meant to harass or intimidate anyone. Knowingly sharing the image without the depicted person’s written consent is enough, provided that person had a reasonable expectation of privacy.

What the Statute Prohibits

The law actually creates two separate offenses. The first is distributing a private image: knowingly posting, texting, emailing, or otherwise sending an intimate image when the depicted person did not give written consent and had a reasonable expectation of privacy.¹ Written consent is the standard. Verbal agreement or an implied understanding will not satisfy the statute.

The second offense is creating a private image. Knowingly recording, creating, or altering an intimate image without the depicted person’s consent is a crime on its own, even if the recording is never shared.¹ Secretly filming someone in an intimate situation can be prosecuted whether or not the file ever leaves the phone.

What Counts as a Private Image

A private image is any photograph, video, digital image, film, or other recording of an identifiable person engaged in sexually explicit conduct as defined by Alabama Code Section 13A-12-190.¹ The person must be identifiable, either from the image itself or from the context in which it was shared.

The statute also reaches edited, altered, and manipulated recordings, and it specifically covers deepfakes and AI-generated content. If a reasonable person would believe the recording depicts an identifiable individual, it qualifies under the law regardless of whether any portion was artificially generated.¹ Someone who uses AI tools to fabricate realistic intimate images of another person faces the same liability as someone who shares an authentic recording.

The Reasonable Expectation of Privacy Requirement

Not every intimate image is protected. The depicted person must have had a reasonable expectation of privacy, and the statute names two situations that automatically qualify: the person created (or agreed to the creation of) the image believing it would stay private, or the sexual conduct depicted was involuntary.¹ Those are examples, not the whole list. The statute uses “includes, but is not limited to.”

On the other side, there is no reasonable expectation of privacy for an image made voluntarily in a public setting, and images created with prior written consent in a commercial setting are also excluded.¹ A performer in commercially produced adult content, for example, cannot use this statute against a distribution they previously authorized in writing.

Penalties

First Offense

A first violation is a Class A misdemeanor, the most serious misdemeanor classification in Alabama.¹ The maximum sentence is one year in county jail² and a fine of up to $6,000.³ A court can instead impose a fine up to double the financial gain the offender received or the financial loss the victim suffered, whichever is greater.

Repeat Offense

Any subsequent conviction or adjudication is charged as a Class C felony.¹ That carries a prison term of one year and one day to ten years⁴ and a fine of up to $15,000.⁵ The double-the-gain-or-loss alternative fine also applies at the felony level. A felony conviction brings long-term collateral consequences, including difficulty finding employment and the loss of certain civil rights.

Where Charges Can Be Filed

Alabama gives prosecutors broad venue options. A case can be brought in any county where part of the offense occurred, the county where the victim lives, the county where the defendant lives, or any county where the image was received.¹ Because digital images travel almost anywhere, this reach is wide. If a local district attorney declines to act, the Alabama Attorney General can also petition a court for an emergency injunction to stop distribution.

Defenses the Statute Recognizes

The law identifies several situations where sharing a private image is not criminal because the distribution serves the public interest:

Reporting unlawful conduct, such as providing the image to law enforcement or using it in a legal proceeding.
Distribution as part of routine police work, prosecution, or civil litigation.
Sharing images as part of standard medical treatment.
Good-faith efforts to stop further distribution, such as sending the image to a platform’s abuse team to request removal.

These are examples rather than a closed list. The statute uses “including, but not limited to,” so a court could recognize other public-interest justifications not specifically named.¹

Federal Charges Under the TAKE IT DOWN Act

Alabama’s state law now runs alongside a federal statute. The TAKE IT DOWN Act became federal law on May 19, 2025, making the non-consensual publication of intimate images a federal crime.⁶ The federal law covers authentic images, AI-generated deepfakes, and threats to publish. Violators face federal prison time, fines, and mandatory restitution to victims.

The Act also imposes obligations on platforms. Websites and apps hosting user-generated content must offer a process for victims to request removal of non-consensual intimate images and must take the content down within 48 hours of a valid notification.⁶ That takedown requirement is a tool Alabama’s state law alone does not provide.

Getting Images Removed

Prosecution addresses the offender, but victims usually also want the images gone. Beyond the 48-hour platform requirement in the federal Act, Google allows victims or their authorized representatives to request that non-consensual intimate images be delisted from search results. The content must show the person nude or in a sexual act, must have been published without consent, and the person must not currently be commercializing the content.⁷ Delisting does not delete the image from the site hosting it, but it makes the content much harder to find. Victims should also send takedown requests directly to the hosting site.

Platforms have historically relied on Section 230 of federal law, which shields them from liability for content posted by users.⁸ Courts have read that immunity broadly. The TAKE IT DOWN Act’s mandatory removal process matters because it creates a legal obligation that sits outside the Section 230 shield, giving victims enforceable removal rights at the federal level.

1
Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 13A-6-240 – Distributing a Private Image; Creating a Private Image
2
Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 13A-5-7 – Sentences of Imprisonment for Misdemeanors
3
Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 13A-5-12 – Fines for Misdemeanors
4
Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 13A-5-6 – Sentences of Imprisonment for Felonies
5
Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 13A-5-11 – Fines for Felonies
6
Congress.gov. S.146 – TAKE IT DOWN Act
7
Google Search Help. Get Help Removing Explicit or Intimate Personal Images
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 47 USC 230