Kentucky anti-grooming bill moves forward in legislature

FRANKFORT — A Kentucky Republican-backed bill that would criminalize the sexual grooming of minors cleared another step in the legislative process Thursday.

HB4 progress

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved House Bill 4, a top priority for House Republicans. The measure now requires approval from the full House and the governor’s signature to become law.

HB4, which has 42 sponsors, would introduce penalties for adults who groom children for sexual purposes, addressing a gap in current Kentucky law.

“We’ve got an increasing problem across our commonwealth … one in 10 children are sexually abused, and those are the ones that we know about,” primary sponsor Rep. Marianne Proctor, R-Union, told the committee. “Grooming is the intentional, manipulative and deceptive process where a predator develops a relationship with a child to prepare them for future acts of sexual abuse. What this bill seeks to do is to stop that behavior before it progresses to sexual assault.”

Under HB4, grooming would be classified as a Class A misdemeanor. If the minor is younger than 12, the charge would rise to a Class D felony. For individuals in positions of trust, grooming a minor would be a Class D felony, or a Class C felony if the minor is under 12, according to the bill.

The bill also outlines exceptions for “lawful or legitimate” communication, including classroom instruction on human sexuality or sexually transmitted diseases, as well as age-appropriate discussions between a child and their parent or guardian.

Louis Kelly, commonwealth’s attorney for Boone and Gallatin counties, said Thursday that lawmakers carefully crafted the bill to protect those engaging in “good faith communications” with minors.

“This is an intent statute. We have to prove not only that they … committed certain objective functions, but they did so with ill intent. It’s an incredibly difficult barrier to do as a prosecutor,” Kelly said. “I think the only way we’re going to be able to prosecute people for this is when the intent is so manifest from what they’re doing.”