18-3-306, otherwise known as the "Internet Luring Law", originally dealt just with the sexual exploitation of children on the internet, and was designed to prevent people more than four years older than a child under 15 from engaging in intimate acts online.
However, the new law folds sexually explicit text messages or cellphone pictures into the mix, known as 'sexting', in a bid to keep up with new technology.
The change to the law is designed to address the growing trend of sending sexually explicit messages via cellphones. Several legal cases have arisen in which teenagers have been prosecuted for this activity.
Six teenagers in Greensboro, Pennsylvania, were charged with child pornography in January after three girls in a class sent sexually explicit photographs to male classmates.
In Cincinnati, an 18-year-old committed suicide after sending a naked picture of herself to someone who then forwarded it to classmates.
In March, the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit against the district attorney in Wyoming County after he threatened to prosecute teenage girls standing nude pictures of themselves.
The trend has sparked some legislative reactions. In Vermont, a bill was introduced in April designed to legalize the sending of sexually explicit pictures between people who are 13 to 18 years old. Other states have moved to reduce the gravity of 'sexting' from a felony to a misdemeanor, which would avoid teenagers convicted of the act ending up on the sexual offenders register.