Proposal would set penalties for people who groom minors

A person commits an offense by intentionally directing a course of conduct at a minor to induce prohibited sexual conduct; a caregiver also commits an offense by seeking that conduct or an intimate or secretive relationship. The first offense applies to an individual 18 or older targeting a child under 14. The caregiver offense applies to a person responsible for the child's welfare who targets a minor under 18. The person must intend to entice, coerce, solicit, or induce the minor to engage in prohibited sexual conduct with that person or someone else. An intimate or secretive relationship means contact concealed from the minor's parent, guardian, or person responsible for the minor, or contact with romantic or sexual overtones. The text uses definitions from other state laws for a course of conduct, a person responsible for a child's welfare, and prohibited sexual conduct. The act would take effect 60 days after enactment.

The text grades most offenses as first-degree misdemeanors and specified offenses as third-degree felonies. The felony grade applies to caregiver offenses and to offenses involving a child under 12 under the adult-offender provision. Ordinary, lawful contact incidental to a professional, educational, athletic, religious, or family relationship is excluded from the caregiver offense based on an intimate or secretive relationship. Open conduct known to the minor's parent, guardian, or person responsible for the minor creates a rebuttable presumption that the relationship is not intimate or secretive. These grades and exceptions would apply when the act takes effect, 60 days after enactment.