Amd §§230.05, 230.06, 230.11, 230.32 & 230.33, Pen L
Enacts the "victims protection and child sex buyer accountability act" relating to increasing the age of victims of the patronizing, promoting, and compelling of prostitution.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A9214A
SPONSOR: Paulin TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the penal law, in relation to enacting the "victims
protection and child sex buyer accountability act"
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
This bill will close dangerous loopholes in New York State law that
currently leave fifteen-to seventeen-year-old minors unprotected from
commercial sexual exploitation; to ensure that all minors under eighteen
are fully covered by prostitution-related statutes; and to conform New
York State law with federal and virtually all other state laws that make
it a felony for individuals to purchase sex from minors.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section one of the bill would title the bill "Victims Protection and
Child Sex Buyer Accountability Act."
Section two would amend § 230.05 of the penal law to raise the age of a
person being patronized from under fifteen to under eighteen for
second-degree patronizing.
Section three would amend subdivisions 1 and 2 of § 230.06 of the penal
law to raise the age of a person being patronized from under thirteen to
under fifteen for first-degree patronizing.
Section four would amend the first undesignated paragraph of § 230.11 of
the penal law to raise the age for sexual contact-based offenses.
Section five would amend § 230.32 of the penal law to remove offender
age thresholds and apply to any person who promotes prostitution of a
child under the age of fifteen.
Section six would amend § 230.33 of the penal law to include deception,
manipulation, coercion, abuse of a position of power or authority, or
abuse of the vulnerability or dependency of such person less than eigh-
teen years old., in the definition of "compelling prostitution."
Section seven would provide for the effective date.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ORIGINAL AND AMENDED VERSION (IF APPLICABLE):
THE A PRINT MAKES AN AMENDMENT TO SECTION 6 OF THE BILL, THE DEFINITION
OF "COMPELLING PROSTITUTION," BY REMOVING THE REQUIREMENT OF SPECIFIC
LANGUAGE SUCH AS "TRUST," "EXPLOITING," "DEPENDENCY" AND "EMOTIONAL
CONTROL" AND REPLACING IT WITH THE LANGUAGE "POSITION OF POWER" . . .
"OR ABUSE OF THE VULNERABILITY OR DEPENDENCY OF SUCH PERSON LESS THAN
EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD."
JUSTIFICATION:
New York law has long failed to fully protect all minors from sexual
exploitation. Although federal law considers anyone under eighteen
involved in commercial sex to be a victim of sex trafficking, New York's
Penal Law only extends full felony protection to those under fifteen or
seventeen depending on the charge. This outdated tiered framework has
created a glaring loophole: a person can pay for sex with a fifteen,
sixteen, or seventeen-year-old and avoid the most serious consequences
simply because of the victim's age. Given that a significant percentage
of child sexual exploitation victims in New York are girls and young
people of color, this lack of recognition under the law as both children
and crime victims can be seen a form of adultification bias - an estab-
lished form of implicit bias whereby children of color, often Black
children, are perceived as older and less innocent than their peers by
adults and systems professionals. In addition, given the significant
and relentless issue of online exploitation of minors, this law would
give law enforcement the necessary tools to address the issue of adults
buying minors for sex on the Internet in New York State.
This bill ends this injustice by establishing a uniform, bright-line
rule determining that all children under the age of eighteen are legally
incapable of consenting to commercial sex and ensures that sex buyers
who exploit a minor's vulnerability face appropriate felony charges.
In addition, the bill updates the statute on "compelling prostitution"
to reflect modern trafficking dynamics, including manipulation, psycho-
logical coercion, and abuse of trust tactics frequently used in
"boyfriend" or grooming-based exploitation.
Importantly, the bill would only apply to sex buyers over the age of 21
given New York's raise-the-age statute. Moreover, minor buyers would
benefit greatly from a youth justice response, including services and
community-based support.
To conclude, this legislation (1) brings New York in line with federal
law that no one under eighteen can legally be patronized or prostituted,
(2) reflects a trauma-informed approach rooted in survivor experience,
and (3) ensures that buyers and traffickers-not the exploited-bear the
weight of accountability.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
To be determined.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
9214--A
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
November 3, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. PAULIN -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Codes -- recommitted to the Committee on Codes in accordance with
Assembly Rule 3, sec. 2 -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered
reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the penal law, in relation to enacting the "victims
protection and child sex buyer accountability act"
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as
2 the "victims protection and child sex buyer accountability act".
3 § 2. The first undesignated paragraph of section 230.05 of the penal
4 law, as amended by chapter 368 of the laws of 2015, is amended to read
5 as follows:
6 A person is guilty of patronizing a person for prostitution in the
7 second degree when, being eighteen years old or more, [he or she] such
8 person patronizes a person for prostitution and the person patronized is
9 less than [fifteen] eighteen years old.
10 § 3. Subdivisions 1 and 2 of section 230.06 of the penal law, as
11 amended by chapter 368 of the laws of 2015, are amended to read as
12 follows:
13 1. [He or she] Such person patronizes a person for prostitution and
14 the person patronized is less than eleven years old; or
15 2. Being eighteen years old or more, [he or she] such person patron-
16 izes a person for prostitution and the person patronized is less than
17 [thirteen] fifteen years old.
18 § 4. The first undesignated paragraph of section 230.11 of the penal
19 law, as amended by chapter 777 of the laws of 2023, is amended to read
20 as follows:
21 A person is guilty of aggravated patronizing a minor for prostitution
22 in the third degree when, being twenty-one years old or more, [he or
23 she] such person patronizes a person for prostitution and the person
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD13861-02-6
A. 9214--A 2
1 patronized is less than [seventeen] eighteen years old and the person
2 guilty of patronizing engages in vaginal sexual contact, oral sexual
3 contact, anal sexual contact, or aggravated sexual contact as those
4 terms are defined in section 130.00 of this part, with the person
5 patronized.
6 § 5. Section 230.32 of the penal law, as added by chapter 627 of the
7 laws of 1978, the opening paragraph and subdivisions 1 and 2 as amended
8 by chapter 368 of the laws of 2015, is amended to read as follows:
9 § 230.32 Promoting prostitution in the first degree.
10 A person is guilty of promoting prostitution in the first degree when
11 [he or she:
12 1. knowingly advances or profits from prostitution of a person less
13 than thirteen years old; or
14 2. being twenty-one years old or more, he or she] such person knowing-
15 ly advances or profits from prostitution of a person less than fifteen
16 years old.
17 Promoting prostitution in the first degree is a class B felony.
18 § 6. The first undesignated paragraph of section 230.33 of the penal
19 law, as amended by chapter 368 of the laws of 2015, is amended to read
20 as follows:
21 A person is guilty of compelling prostitution when, being eighteen
22 years old or more, [he or she] such person knowingly advances prostitu-
23 tion by compelling a person less than eighteen years old to engage in
24 prostitution, whether by force [or], intimidation, [to engage in prosti-
25 tution] deception, manipulation, coercion, abuse of a position of power
26 or authority, or abuse of the vulnerability or dependency of such person
27 less than eighteen years old.
28 § 7. This act shall take effect immediately.
