As this year’s legislative session winds down, many bills are waiting for action, including one that would change how New York treats adults who buy sex from minors, compared to federal law.
The bill at hand – the Victims Protection and Child Sex Buyer Accountability Act – would make it so adults who buy sex from minors under 18 get charged with more than just a misdemeanor.
That would mean raising the age threshold in state law, making it so older teens between 15 and 17 years are treated the same as younger children below 14.
Bridie Farrell trained to make the U.S. Olympic speed skating team, and along the way, an unfortunate experience revealed a different purpose.
“I came forward just so I could make a slight difference in the world of speed skating, and was really inspired and kept in the back of my mind and in my heart,” said Farrell, founder and president of Vocare.
She was sexually abused at the age of 15 by someone she knew.
“It isn’t predominantly strangers in windowless vans, right? It is people that we know and sometimes love that are within our communities,” she said.
Now, as a survivor and advocate, Farrell said the bill isn’t just a technical fix. It’s about whether the law is really on minors’ side when they come forward.
“This bill will increase the penalties for purchasing sex of children, and that will be very helpful in New York for helping to make it safer for children,” Farrell said.
“It would raise the penalties from being a misdemeanor, which is still a crime, to a much more serious level, where it would be a felony conviction, if that person were found guilty,” said Kevin O’Brien, attorney at O’Brien & Eggleston PLLC.
The bill has passed the Senate and is waiting to be taken up on the Assembly floor.
“If the session comes to an end and this doesn’t pass, then shame on a lot of people, a lot of people, because there are serious, serious consequences to this,” Farrell said.
Time is ticking with the session ending, and supporters say if the bill ever becomes law, New York will finally treat buying sex from any minor as a serious trafficking crime, in line with federal standards. And if it doesn’t, advocates say they’ll be returning to Albany next year, pushing to protect minors by closing the loophole.