SLCo DA Applauds Signing Virtual Reality Bill Targeting Adults Preying on Children

Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill applauds the signing of HB 358. Utah is the first state in the nation where an adult cannot use an online avatar in a virtual reality environment to engage in sexual activity with an avatar whose user they know to be a child. When our office identified the deficiency in Utah law to prosecute this type of crime, freshman Representative Verona Mauga, D- West Valley City & Taylorsville, expressed a desire to not only work with our office to help create a fix, but she successfully ushered it through a competitive legislative session that considered a record amount of bills. We appreciate her dedicated work and patience with our office as we worked together with other stakeholders to refine this law to best protect our children in a virtual space that is evolving every day.

Governor Cox signed HB 358 on Tuesday, March 26, 2025. 
 
“Our children rely on the adults in their lives to safeguard their well-being and protect them from those who might prey upon them.  Things that happen in virtual reality can be deeply traumatic and may lead to other forms of abuse in the real world. This law seeks to prevent that by targeting adults who use virtual spaces to exploit or groom children,” said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill. “We appreciate Rep. Mauga for seeing this bill through to its signing and Senator Kwan for her work on the bill as the Senate Floor Sponsor.”