HB 1027 Virginia House of Delegates · 2026 Regular Session

Children; use of communication systems to facilitate certain offenses, exception.

Summary

Use of communications systems to facilitate certain offenses involving children; exception. Provides that the crime of using communications systems to facilitate certain offenses involving children only applies when (i) the child involved is within the age ranges prescribed by law or (ii) the other person involved is a law-enforcement officer posing as a child within the age ranges prescribed by law while in the performance of his official duties.

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2026

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Jan 14, 2026 Last action Feb 11, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Introduced → Courts of Justice Substitute · 2 edits

MINOR

The bill text was converted from a draft introduction to a formal substitute version prepared by the Courts of Justice Committee. The substantive legal language regarding penalties and definitions remains identical, but the scope of applicability was expanded to include parents or legal guardians posing as children when communicating with minors.

Scope change

The bill now explicitly covers situations where a parent or legal guardian poses as a child to communicate with a minor, in addition to law enforcement officers.

SCOPE

Subsection F was rewritten to add 'the parent or legal guardian of a child' as a valid scenario for the bill's application, alongside law-enforcement officers.

TECHNICAL

The document format changed from an introduced bill to a 'Substitute' version, adding committee headers and page numbers while keeping the core legal text unchanged.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Feb 6, 2026

Lower · Passed

Subcommittee recommends continuing to (Voice Vote)

lower

Feb 6, 2026

Lower · Passed

House subcommittee offered

lower

Feb 5, 2026

Committee

Assigned HCJ sub: Criminal

lower

Jan 14, 2026

Committee

Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice

lower

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors