Overview

• The California Assembly amended AB 379 to allow felony charges for adults soliciting 16- and 17-year-olds if the offender is more than three years older than the minor, with misdemeanors for smaller age gaps.
• The bill includes new provisions for a state grant program to support trafficking prosecutions and a survivor support fund funded by increased fines on complicit businesses.
• The amendments follow criticism of Democrats' initial removal of the felony provision, which led to bipartisan backlash and Governor Gavin Newsom's public disapproval.
• Assemblymember Maggy Krell, a former trafficking prosecutor, authored the bill to close a loophole in existing law, which already imposes felony penalties for soliciting minors under 16.
• AB 379 is now advancing to the Assembly Appropriations Committee and is expected to pass the full Assembly before moving to the Senate for further consideration.