A measure purporting to stop human trafficking by stopping people under the age of 21 from working in the adult entertainment sector is slated for another Senate committee stop.
The Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice will consider on Tuesday morning Sen. Clay Yarborough's bill (SB 1690).
If the measure advances, it has one stop ahead before the floor.
Yarborough's legislation stipulates, after an amendment adopted in committee, that owners would be subject to first-degree misdemeanor charges regarding those under 21 working in the clubs.
If those under 21 dare to bare, the penalty is enhanced to a second-degree felony penalty for the proprietors.
The bill covers work in adult bookstores, adult theaters, special cabaret and unlicensed massage establishments.
The bill analysis notes there historically has been controversy about these age restrictions that exclude adults under the age of 21 from adult performance, but that "courts have found that the state has a compelling interest in protecting victims from human trafficking, and that there is often a link between human trafficking and certain adult entertainment establishments."
This purported link applies to a seminal Jacksonville case: Wacko's Too, Inc. v. City of Jacksonville, in which Jacksonville has used a licensing scheme to restrict those under the age of 21 from performing as a "permissible way to keep track of licensed performers, secondary to combating human trafficking."
Yarborough described Jacksonville's anti-human trafficking law as a model in a previous committee, calling it "good policy for the state as a whole."
He also framed his bill as cleaning up previous statutory language that lacked an enforcement component, saying it "deletes the prohibition on the employment of persons under 18 years of age for employment involving nudity because it is poorly worded, does not contain a criminal penalty for its violation and is unnecessary due to the broader prohibition that we would infuse."
The House version (HB 1379), carried by Rep. Carolina Amesty, is moving in committees also and has one stop ahead before the floor.
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