Promoting the exposure of a person · as in force on May 31, 2026
§ 245.02 Promoting the exposure of a person.
A person is guilty of promoting the exposure of a person when he knowingly conducts, maintains, owns, manages, operates or furnishes any public premise or place where a person in a public place appears in such a manner that the private or intimate parts of his body are unclothed or exposed. For purposes of this section, the private or intimate parts of a female person shall include that portion of the breast which is below the top of the areola. This section shall not apply to the breastfeeding of infants or to any person entertaining or performing in a play, exhibition, show or entertainment.
Promoting the exposure of a person is a violation.
Nothing in this section shall prevent the adoption by a city, town or village of a local law prohibiting the exposure of a person substantially as herein defined in a public place, at any time, whether or not such person is entertaining or performing in a play, exhibition, show or entertainment.
Knowingly conducting, maintaining, owning, managing, operating or furnishing a public premise or place where a person in a public place appears with private or intimate parts unclothed or exposed is promoting the exposure of a person, a violation. For a female, private or intimate parts include the part of the breast below the top of the areola. ★ The section does not apply to breastfeeding or to anyone entertaining or performing in a play, exhibition, show or entertainment. A city, town or village may still adopt a local law banning substantially the same public exposure, whether or not the person is performing.
Marked in the text: penalties, time limits, sums of money. Editorial emphasis added by this edition; it does not appear in the statute as enacted.
This provision appears in Volume 4 — The Court Clerk: Penal Law; Volume 1 — The Court Officer in Plain English; Volume 3 — The Court Officer: Penal Law; Volume 3 — Your Career: Penal Law in Plain English.