ESB 233 – Child Solicitation

The House & Senate worked out their differences on Senate Bill 0233 Child solicitation. Current law makes it a felony for a person 18 or older to “solicit” a child 14 or younger. (Solicitation essentially means to seek sexual gratification from in this instance.) The new bill also makes it a felony for a 21 year old to “solicit” a 16 year old. What strikes me as odd about both existing law and this law is that it’s a Class D felony normally, but a Class C felony if the solicitation occurs using a computer network. So, it’s more acceptable for a person to seek sexual gratification from our kids in person than over the Internet? That’s just weird. I suspect it reflects a panic over new technology rather than anything particularly rational.