The bare minimum
Federal and state law makes clear that minors under 18 cannot consent to engaging in commercial sex acts. State law also specifies that not knowing a victim’s age or believing a victim was older does not excuse the crime.
Protection of minors, however, becomes less clear on social media and dating apps.
While many dating apps have some form of identity verification, including video selfies and the use of artificial intelligence to flag suspicious activity, kids and traffickers continue to use these platforms with relative ease, police and prosecutors say.
“There’s a lot of predators that are on those sites all day long, every day, and their
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