S 5887: Establishes the class E felony of dissemination of false missing child information.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 5887 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE March 3, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sen. LANZA -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Codes AN ACT to amend the penal law, in relation to dissemination of false information about a missing child The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The penal law is amended by adding a new section 240.49 to 2 read as follows: 3 § 240.49 Dissemination of false missing child information. 4 A person is guilty of dissemination of false missing child information 5 when, knowing the information such person reported, conveyed, circulated 6 or disseminated is false or baseless, such person states or reports, by 7 any means, that a child is a missing child as defined in subdivision one 8 of section eight hundred thirty-seven-e of the executive law, and as a 9 result of such report, conveyance, circulation or dissemination, public 10 funds were expended to investigate and/or locate the purported missing 11 child. 12 Dissemination of false missing child information is a class E felony. 13 § 2. This act shall take effect on the first of November next succeed- 14 ing the date on which it shall have become a law. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD10341-01-5