AUGUSTA ( AP) — A legislative committee will take public testimony on a bill to bolster Maine’s laws protecting children from being solicited to engage in a sexual act.
The Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee takes up the bill today.
Maine’s current law prohibits a person from using a computer to solicit a child to engage in a prohibited sexual act. But no such prohibition exists if the solicitation is not performed with the use of a computer.
Senate Democratic Leader Barry Hobbins’ bill would prohibit the verbal solicitation of a child to perform a prohibited sexual act. If the child is less than 14 years of age, it would be a Class D crime; if the child is less than 12 years of age, it’s a Class C crime.
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