Topeka ? Kansas legislators heard testimony Monday on a House bill that would create new penalties for transmitting and possessing nude photos of children between the ages of 12 and 19 years old.

Republican Rep. Ramon Gonzales of Perry, who first introduced the bill last year, called the measure an alternative to current laws that make first-time sexual exploitation of a child under 18 years old a felony. Those laws apply only to adults over the age of 18 and do not address the practice of sending others sexually suggestive text messages or photos, commonly known as sexting.

Gonzales’ bill would create two new crimes when the offender is no more than six years older than the child between 12 to 19 years old.

The first would make it a felony for those tried as an adult to transmit such photos and is punishable by up to seven months in prison, while doing so with the intent of causing psychological or physical harm would result in longer prison time. The second crime would make it a misdemeanor to possess nude photos with up to one year of jail time. Children under 18 years old who are tried as juveniles would receive amended sentences.

Kansas is one of 30 states without sexting laws that apply to middle school and high school students. The new measures aim to address the gray area in which adolescents would either be tried as an adult and included on a sex offender registry or would receive no punishment.

States across the country are considering updating child sexual pornography laws to include punishments for sexting in the wake of the 2009 death of a 13-year-old girl who took her own life after her nude photos were spread around several schools.

Lobbyists representing law enforcement and the juvenile justice system testified in favor of the bill Monday in front of the House Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice.

Circuit Court of Jackson County detention chaplain Alex Mathew said it was “mercy legislation” that would help his students avoid a life on the sexual offender registry. He recommended the bill also include an education diversion program that would help adolescents learn about boundaries.

“I don’t call my students offenders, I call them children because they’re still learning,” Mathew said.

But Jennifer Roth, a lobbyist for The Kansas Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said penalizing teens for sending each other nude photos was too harsh and lambasted the bill’s criminalization of children for normal adolescent behavior.

“We are asking that youth not be penalized for stupidity,” Roth said.