Calif. lawmakers restore felony charges in bill on soliciting sex from minors

California Democrats are reversing course on a bill, amending it to once again allow felony charges against adults who solicit sex for minors who are 16 and 17 years of age

The Assembly Appropriations Committee on Wednesday unanimously passed AB 379, a bill targeting buyers in child sex trafficking

The legislation would criminalize loitering to buy sex from teens age 16 and 17 and create a fund for trafficking victims

For adult offenders at least three years older than the minor, prosecutors will have new tools to bring felony charges

When the adult offender is within three years of age of the minor, solicitation remains illegal and a misdemeanor

Assembly Public Safety Committee Chair Nick Schultz said in a statement. Last week, Straight Arrow News reported on state lawmakers in the Assembly Public Safety Committee who blocked the effort to make soliciting 16- and 17-year-olds for sex a felony

In the Golden State, it's already a felony crime to buy or attempt to buy sex from children aged 15 and younger

Critics of the legislation told Vanguard News Group that the bill could unfairly target certain

individuals by making loitering a crime again, arguing that people simply driving or walking

in certain neighborhoods might be arrested if police interpret their presence as loitering State Senator Scott Weiner faced criticism this week for a comment posted on Blue Sky saying quote Sending an 18 high school senior to state prison for offering his 17 classmate to fool around isn smart criminal justice policy

Yet that's what some people are effectively advocating in this misleading debate

Governor Gavin Newsom weighed in on the issue in a statement. Newsom's office said the law should treat all sex predators who solicit minors the same as a felony

regardless of the intended victim's age, full stop. Despite controversies surrounding the bill

the proposal is moving forward, sparking online attack ads from both parties and causing disagreement

among Democrats about whether people who buy sex from teens should get tougher penalties

KCRA reported. The bill's co-author, Assemblymember Maggie Krell, wrote on X, Goal has always been to hammer the creeps who are buying teens for sex and create more support for victims

New version accomplishes these goals and makes it a felony for a grown man to buy a child for sex

I appreciate everyone's work on this bill, especially the Survivor Coalition for never giving up

AB 379 still needs approval from the full Assembly and Senate. A vote in the Assembly is expected next week

For Straight Arrow News, I'm Lauren Keenan. For more on this story, download the Straight Arrow News app or visit san.com