SACRAMENTO – Yesterday, Assemblymember Sandré R. Swanson's (D-Oakland) landmark legislation to protect sexually exploited youth, passed the Assembly Committee on Public Safety on a 5-1 vote.  AB499 provides a much needed safety net for children under 18 who have been forced into prostitution, child pornography, and human trafficking.  This bill gives tools to law enforcement, government agencies and child advocates to protect young victims of commercial sexual exploitation.

Under current law, commercially sexually exploited minors (SEMs) are arrested and put through the criminal justice system but are not receiving the social services necessary to keep them away from trouble.  "We want to make sure that youth who are being exploited are being treated as victims and not as criminals.  AB 499 brings true reform to the way we approach, define and treat young people who have been exploited," stated Mr. Swanson.

Specifically, AB 499 addresses the need for specialized services in response to the rapid growth in SEMs cases due in part to child predators utilizing technology to promote child prostitution.  This bill will:

• Increase coordination between local government, law enforcement agencies, and child advocates, by establishing a program of supervision (informal court probation) for SEMs accused of prostitution offenses
• Create a pilot program in the County of Alameda to implement a standardized training curriculum on the sexual exploitation of minors
• Require that the training curriculum be established and made available to local law enforcement and criminal justice agencies.

In addition to protecting sexually exploited minors, Assemblymember Swanson’s bill also emphasizes that the sexual predators profiting from the sexual exploitation are no longer invisible to prosecution.  Alameda County District Attorney and Director of the Human Trafficking Unit Sharmin Bock spoke in favor of the passage of AB 499 explaining, “There is an epidemic in this state in child prostitution which has created a class of bottom feeders or ‘sexual entrepreneurs.'  Even drug dealers have found that child sexual exploitation is more lucrative and less risky than selling drugs!”

Assemblymember Swanson concurred, “The criminal justice system finds itself unable to cope with the rapid rise in SEMs.  AB 499 is an attempt to end the cycle of abuse which leads to a lifetime of crime and an unnecessary criminal record. This bill creates a unified platform to serve and protect SEMs without criminalizing children.  Through coordination and a renewed focus on prosecuting the real predators, we can hope to someday end the exploitation of children in our communities.”

AB 499 bill now heads for the Assembly Appropriations Committee in the next week and is expected for a full vote of the State Assembly by the end of the month.