The Georgia House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed House Bill 9 by a vote of 156-1. Authored by State Representative Shaw Blackmon (R-Bonaire), the bill would change Georgia’s invasion of privacy laws to make filming under or through a person’s clothing a felony in Georgia.

“House Bill 9 criminalizes a lewd and invasive act and closes this loophole in our state’s invasion of privacy law,” said Rep. Blackmon. “I hope this measure will bring peace of mind to all those who have fallen victim to incidents of this nature, and I am grateful to my colleagues for recognizing the importance of protecting the privacy of Georgians.”

HB 9 criminalizes the use of a device, such as a camera or mobile phone, to secretly observe, photograph, videotape, film or record underneath or through a person’s clothing to view intimate parts of the body in circumstances where that person has a reasonable expectation of privacy. This legislation would also make it unlawful to disseminate images or recordings that were obtained this way.

HB 9 was introduced in response to a Georgia Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the conviction of an individual for one count of criminal invasion of privacy for recording cell phone video underneath a woman’s skirt at a grocery store. The court found that the defendant’s actions did not violate Georgia’s current invasion of privacy law because the incident occurred in a public space. Current Georgia law related to the invasion of privacy only applies to activities that occur in any “private place out of viewing.”