AUGUSTA, Maine — 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 Monday.
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.
This is going to deter your neighborhood child molester for sure.
Computers leave a trail and someone could be tracked. I wonder how they would prove solicitation without the computer trail to follow. Certainly a person couldn’t be convicted on the hearsay of a child.
This is just political posturing! There is no real world value in the legislation.
Hey, if you have got to hurry up and pretend to have done something,
this is just the ticket.