The Messages That Will Not Stop
ORC 2917.21 and 2903.211 — harassment by phone, text or post, stalking as a pattern, and the image shared to hurt
Three sections of the criminal code meet at the phone. One is about the messages themselves, one is about a pattern of conduct whatever the medium, and one is about a single image. They are charged differently, and the protection order page on this site is where the civil remedy lives. This page is what each offense is.
Who handles this in Ohio: Ohio State Bar Association lawyer referral; and legal aid programs and the state offices, listed in the Ohio directory.
Telecommunications harassment: the purpose is the offense. No person makes or causes to be made a telecommunication, or permits one to be made from a device under the person's control, with purpose to abuse, threaten or harass another person. No person knowingly posts a text or audio statement or an image on an internet web site or web page for the purpose of abusing, threatening or harassing another person. The section lists other ways of committing it, among them continuing to call after the recipient has said not to.
A first offense is a misdemeanor of the first degree, and each later one a felony of the fifth degree. Telecommunications harassment is a misdemeanor of the first degree on a first offense and a felony of the fifth degree on each subsequent offense, with higher degrees where a threat under the section causes economic harm at the amounts the section names.
Menacing by stalking is a pattern, not a message. No person by engaging in a pattern of conduct knowingly causes another person to believe that the offender will cause physical harm to that person or a family or household member, or causes mental distress to them. A pattern of conduct is two or more actions or incidents closely related in time, and no single incident needs to be an offense on its own.
Menacing by stalking is a misdemeanor of the first degree. It is a felony of the fourth degree where, among the circumstances the section lists, the offender has a prior conviction under the section, made a threat of physical harm in committing it, trespassed on the land where the victim lives or works, or the victim was a minor.
An image shared to hurt is its own offense. No person knowingly disseminates an image of another person who is eighteen or older, in a state of nudity or engaged in a sexual act, where the person in the image did not consent, the offender knows or reasonably ought to know that the person had a reasonable expectation the image would remain private, and the image is disseminated with intent to harm the person in it. It is a misdemeanor of the third degree, rising to the second and then the first with prior convictions under the section.
| The offense | What it takes | Degree |
|---|---|---|
| The offenseTelecommunications harassment | What it takesA telecommunication or post with purpose to abuse, threaten or harass | DegreeM-1, then F-5 |
| The offenseMenacing by stalking | What it takesA pattern of conduct causing belief of physical harm or mental distress | DegreeM-1, F-4 with the listed circumstances |
| The offenseNonconsensual dissemination | What it takesA private sexual image shared without consent, with intent to harm | DegreeM-3, then M-2, then M-1 |
Aggravated menacing and menacing, which are single threats rather than patterns, the civil action the image section's companion creates, the protection orders each of these offenses can support, and what a particular set of messages amounts to are not on this page. Whether conduct was a pattern or a single incident is a question of fact in a particular case, for a licensed Ohio attorney and, where it comes to it, a court.
Sources for this section (3)
- ORC 2917.21 — Telecommunications harassment
- ORC 2903.211 — Menacing by stalking
- ORC 2917.211 — Nonconsensual dissemination of private sexual images
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of September 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Ohio attorney.