Failing the children of California

Failing the children of California ~ a new law decriminalizing child prostitution puts children at greater risk

ANALYSIS/OPINION:
At the start of each new year we’re subjected to a whole host of new laws. The modern liberal government, you see, imagines itself not as the champion of individual freedom but as Mommy and Daddy, a taskmaster charged with controlling your life. Most of the time, it makes everything, including our lives, worse.
Case in point: California. Completely at the mercy of the left, which now controls two-thirds of the state government, California serves as a living illustration of what the left really wants to accomplish. As of Jan. 1, that includes decriminalizing what is commonly called “child prostitution.”
They may not have technically legalized it, but decriminalizing the act per se will have the same results, while putting exploited children in even more danger.
First, let’s make one thing clear right now: There is no such thing as “child prostitution.” The fact is we’re dealing with the sex trafficking of girls and boys. This isn’t some horror reserved for Thailand or some other far-off place — it’s happening right here in the United States.
More than 1,000 children are arrested each year for prostitution, with estimates of sex trafficking involving 100,000 to 2.4 million children. Concerned Women for America reports, “The United States Department of Justice uses the number 293,000 as the estimate for youth ‘at risk’ of being commercially sexually exploited.”
The fact that these children are victims is not disputed, but what California has just done makes the problem even worse.

A revelatory op-ed in the Washington Examiner by Travis Allen, one of the few Republicans in the California legislature, declaring the state had “legalized” child prostitution, made waves and garnered much-needed attention to the issue.
Mr. Travis wrote, “Beginning on Jan. 1, prostitution by minors will be legal in California. Yes, you read that right. SB 1322 bars law enforcement from arresting sex workers who are under the age of 18 for soliciting or engaging in prostitution, or loitering with the intent to do so. So teenage girls (and boys) in California will soon be free to have sex in exchange for money without fear of arrest or prosecution.”

For more detailed analysis: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jan/4/california-law-decriminalizing-child-prostitution-/