New York statute
N.Y. Penal Law § 235.20 — Disseminating indecent material to minors; definitions of terms
Current through 2026 legislative session (LBDC text via OpenLegislation as of 2026-07-17)
Part of Article 235: Obscenity and Related Offenses, New York Penal Law.
Full text of N.Y. Penal Law § 235.20
Statutory text current through the 2026 legislative session (LBDC text via OpenLegislation as of 2026-07-17). This publication reproduces the text of the Consolidated Laws of New York as provided by the New York State Senate's Open Legislation service (Legislative Bill Drafting Commission statutory text); it is not the official statutes of the State of New York.
235.20 Disseminating indecent material to minors; definitions of
terms.
The following definitions are applicable to sections 235.21, 235.22,
235.23 and 235.24 of this article:
1. "Minor" means any person less than seventeen years old.
2. "Nudity" means the showing of the human male or female genitals,
pubic area or buttocks with less than a full opaque covering, or the
showing of the female breast with less than a fully opaque covering of
any portion thereof below the top of the nipple, or the depiction of
covered male genitals in a discernably turgid state.
3. "Sexual conduct" means acts of masturbation, homosexuality, sexual
intercourse, or physical contact with a person's clothed or unclothed
genitals, pubic area, buttocks or, if such person be a female, breast.
4. "Sexual excitement" means the condition of human male or female
genitals when in a state of sexual stimulation or arousal.
5. "Sado-masochistic abuse" means flagellation or torture by or upon
a person clad in undergarments, a mask or bizarre costume, or the
condition of being fettered, bound or otherwise physically restrained on
the part of one so clothed.
6. "Harmful to minors" means that quality of any description or
representation, in whatever form, of nudity, sexual conduct, sexual
excitement, or sado-masochistic abuse, when it:
(a) Considered as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest in sex of
minors; and
(b) Is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult
community as a whole with respect to what is suitable material for
minors; and
(c) Considered as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic,
political and scientific value for minors.
7. The term "access software" means software (including client or
server software) or enabling tools that do not create or provide the
content of the communication but that allow a user to do any one or more
of the following:
(a) filter, screen, allow or disallow content;
(b) pick, choose, analyze or digest content; or
(c) transmit, receive, display, forward, cache, search, subset,
organize, reorganize or translate content.
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