(a) A person is guilty of enticing a minor when such person uses an interactive computer service to knowingly persuade, induce, entice or coerce any person (1) under eighteen years of age, or (2) who the actor reasonably believes to be under eighteen years of age, to engage in prostitution or sexual activity for which the actor may be charged with a criminal offense. For purposes of this section, “interactive computer service” means any information service, system or access software provider that provides or enables computer access by multiple users to a computer server, including specifically a service or system that provides access to the Internet and such systems operated or services offered by libraries or educational institutions.

(b) (1) Except as provided in subdivision (2) of this subsection, enticing a minor is a class D felony for a first offense, a class C felony for a second offense and a class B felony for any subsequent offense.

(2) Enticing a minor is a class B felony if the victim of the offense is under thirteen years of age and any person found guilty of such class B felony shall, for a first offense, be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of which five years of the sentence imposed may not be suspended or reduced by the court and, for any subsequent offense, be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of which ten years of the sentence imposed may not be suspended or reduced by the court.

(P.A. 99-113; P.A. 04-139, S. 1; P.A. 07-143, S. 5; P.A. 16-71, S. 9.)

History: P.A. 04-139 amended Subsec. (b) to increase penalty for a first offense from a class A misdemeanor to a class D felony, for a second offense from a class D felony to a class C felony and for any subsequent offense from a class C felony to a class B felony, effective July 1, 2004; P.A. 07-143 amended Subsec. (b) to designate existing penalty provision as Subdiv. (1) and amend same to add exception re Subdiv. (2) and to add new Subdiv. (2) classifying offense as a class B felony if the victim is under 13 years of age and specifying a term of imprisonment which may not be suspended or reduced by the court of 5 years for a first offense and 10 years for a subsequent offense, effective July 1, 2007; P.A. 16-71 amended Subsec. (a) by designating existing provision re age of person as Subdiv. (1) and amending same to replace “sixteen” with “eighteen” and by adding Subdiv. (2) re actor reasonably believes person to be under age 18.

Subsec. (a):

The plain meaning of the word “entice”, as used in Subsec., does not require that an individual actually succeed in convincing a person to act for an enticement to have occurred, and therefore, it is not necessary that defendant actually engage in sexual activity with a minor to be convicted. 127 CA 464.