Gov. Newsom supports push to make it a felony to purchase 16 and 17-year-olds for sex in California
By Ashley Zavala, KCRAApril 30, 2025
FILE: Governor Gavin Newsom speaks during a January 2025 press conference.
Anadolu/Anadolu via Getty Images
This article originally appeared on KCRA.com.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom is getting involved and speaking out after Democratic California lawmakers in the Assembly
blocked a proposal that would make it an automatic felony to purchase a 16 or 17-year-old for sex.
The issue has been part of a two-year-long debate on the growing child sex trafficking industry in California as lawmakers try to target the consumers of it with harsher consequences. The Democratic governor has consistently supported the efforts.
In a statement provided exclusively to KCRA 3 on Tuesday, the governor's office said, "The law should treat all sex predators who solicit minors the same — as a felony, regardless of the intended victim’s age. Full stop.”
The statement came hours after the Assembly Public Safety Committee would only allow the latest bill carrying the proposal to move forward so long as it did not include the new felony for 16 and 17-year-olds. The committee is scheduling an informational hearing later this fall to discuss the automatic felony.
Democratic Assemblymember Maggy Krell filed the measure, AB 379, this year after Republican State Senator Shannon Grove last year attempted to make it a felony to purchase a child 18 years old and younger for sex. Democrats last year agreed to move her measure forward, so long as the automatic felony only applied to children 15 years old and younger.
On Tuesday, Krell was put in a similar situation. The committee allowed other parts of the bill to move forward which reverse parts of a 2022 California law that decriminalized loitering for prostitution. But the committee would not allow the automatic felony for the buyers of 16- and 17-year-olds to move forward.
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Krell, who has spent the last two decades investigating human trafficking and was a prosecutor for the California Department of Justice, has said the state's consequences for buyers are not enough.
"I don't think we're doing enough to protect children from sex trafficking. I think that's pretty clear," Krell said after the hearing. "It's clear from the survivors. It's clear from, you know, driving down to the blade right now, there's 16 and 17-year-olds, being sold for sex, and that's not okay. And we need to do more about it."
Ashley Faison-Maddox, who was trafficked as a teen and founded an organization that helps survivors, said she's grateful for the progress, but is looking forward to new amendments and more bills to address the problem.
"Being in a room as a 16 and 17-year-old, not knowing who is going to come through the door to purchase you, if they're going to hurt you, if they're going to rape you, what their fetishes are. That stuff is a real concern for 16 and 17-year-olds," she said.
But some Democrats are concerned overall about how the stiffer penalties and automatic felony could impact the LGBTQ community, people of color and older teens in relationships with younger minors.
"The exploitation of any child, it's already unlawful to do anything like that in the state of California," said Assemblyman Nick Schultz, the chairman of the committee, after the hearing. "What we're talking about is a very specific, narrow issue of whether or not the stiff penalties that apply in, say, a human trafficking context should apply in a non-human trafficking context involving a 16- or 17-year-old."
Shultz also worries how the law that makes it a felony to purchase children 15 years old and younger also requires those convicted to register as sex offenders.
"That doesn't mean we shouldn't have the conversation, but how that might apply to an 18-year-old and 17-year-old in a relationship might be different from what we might see in a situation where someone is trying to get somebody off the blade and exploit them. I think these are important conversations we have to have."
Tuesday's development now marks the third time the governor has pushed back against members of his own party and intervened when Democrats in the California Legislature have blocked or stalled child sex trafficking related legislation.
In 2023,
the governor spoke out after the Assembly Public Safety committee unexpectedly blocked a bill that made the trafficking of a child a serious felony in California, also known as SB 14. The committee the following day held a special hearing and reversed its decision. The measure became law.
In 2024, the governor spoke out after
Democrats in the Senate Public Safety committee changed Grove's proposal, SB 1414, to make the purchase of a minor for sex a felony but only in situations when the victim is under the age of 15. While it did become law, it's what lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been trying to fix this year.
Shortly after the governor released the statement Tuesday afternoon, Assemblyman Shultz invited the governor to the informational hearing later this fall.
"We appreciate the Governor’s commitment to a safer and more just California," Shultz said. "Information gathering is an important part of the job of every elected official, and we should all strive to address difficult issues carefully after considering all voices."
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