Registered sex offenders: interactive video games: meeting with minors.

Existing law, the Sex Offender Registration Act, last amended by Proposition 35, as approved by the voters at the November 6, 2012, statewide general election, requires a person convicted of certain crimes, as specified, to register with law enforcement as a sex offender for the rest of his or her life while residing in California or while attending school or working in California, as specified. Existing law makes it a crime for a person who is motivated by an unnatural or abnormal sexual interest in children to arrange a meeting with a minor or a person he or she believes to be a minor for the purpose of exposing his or her genitals or pubic or rectal area, having the child expose his or her genitals or pubic or rectal area, or engaging in lewd or lascivious behavior. Existing law makes the crime punishable by a fine not exceeding $5,000, by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, or by both the fine and imprisonment. This bill would make it a crime, punishable by a fine not exceeding $5,000, by imprisonment in a state prison not exceeding one year, or by both the fine and imprisonment, for a registered sex offender to use an interactive video game to encourage another user of the interactive video game who is a minor to physically travel to a specified location for the purpose of meeting the minor. By creating a new crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.