S429 - 2025 Public Safety Act. (SL 2025-70)

G.S. 14-202 generally provides that it is a Class 1 misdemeanor to "peep secretly" into any room occupied by another person or underneath the clothing of another person. Higher penalties attach to certain aggravating conduct. Previously, subsection (e) provided that "Any person who secretly or surreptitiously uses any device to create a photographic image of another person underneath or through the clothing being worn by that other person for the purpose of viewing the body of, or the undergarments worn by, that other person without their consent shall be guilty of a Class I felony."  

S.L. 2025-70 deletes this language and replaces it with the following: " Unless covered under some other provision of law providing greater punishment, any person who, with the intent to create a photographic image of a private area of an individual without the individual's consent, knowingly does so under circumstances in which the individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy shall be guilty of a Class I felony."

Additionally, any person who secretly peeps into a room while possessing a device capable of creating a photographic image, with the intent to create that image, is guilty of a Class A1 misdemeanor.

This section becomes effective December 1, 2025, and applies to offenses on or after that date.