A Northern Kentucky lawmaker has filed legislation to make child grooming a criminal offense in the Commonwealth, joining more than a dozen other states, including Ohio, with similar protections.State Rep. Marianne Proctor of Un ion filed House Bill 4 to criminalize grooming behavior, which refers to the manipulative process by which a predator builds a relationship with a vulnerable person to gain their trust and access for abuse or exploitation."The measure is constituent-driven. I had a mom come to me with concerns as her daughter was a victim of grooming behavior," Proctor said. "This kind of behavior needs to be criminalized; it will not be tolerated."Proctor stood with Boone County deputies and prosecutors at the Kentucky State House in Frankfort Wednesday to discuss the legislation, emphasizing the urgent need for such protections."Right now, we do not have any statutes that protect our children from this predatory behavior that occurs prior to physical sexual abuse, so with House Bill 4, not only will we criminalize it, but we will hold the offenders accountable," Proctor said.If passed, Kentucky would join Ohio and several other states with similar laws. Ohio's version went into effect last April.WATCH: A Boone County lawmaker discusses her bill to criminalize predatory grooming behavior in the Commonwealth Kentucky could soon join Ohio in criminalizing predatory grooming behaviorAddressing gaps in current lawBoone County Commonwealth's Attorney Louis Kelly said the legislation addresses significant gaps in existing law that prevent prosecutors from taking action against predatory behavior before it escalates to sexual assault."Crimes are very specific, and sometimes it's hard to create laws that capture all of the behavior that we would want to deter," Kelly said. "So we find ourselves with a lot of gaps, and recently, we have found ourselves a big gap in behavior that doesn't rise to the level of an actual sexual solicitation or doesn't result in a sexual touch or assault, but is nevertheless clearly inappropriate and clearly designed to lead to such things."The timing of the bill comes as local officials deal with ongoing cases involving grooming behavior. On Tuesday, a Burlington man was sentenced to 15 years in prison for sexually abusing a teen he knew after engaging in grooming behavior for years."Had we known, and had we had these laws, we could have maybe prevented that or stopped that," Kelly said.Kelly said the new law would provide prosecutors with additional tools to intervene earlier and add charges in cases that do progress to sexual assault.While existing legislation like Senate Bill 181 addresses communication between teachers and students, Proctor said House Bill 4 extends protections beyond the classroom."What happens in my communication with superintendents and teachers is many times people go outside of those channels, and that's where a lot of this activity begins," Proctor said. "This is going to be any adult in a position of special authority or trust that is engaging in this behavior."Kelly noted that the law would particularly target those who deliberately circumvent established safeguards.You can view the full bill in the reader below: Northern Kentucky numbersLauren Mason, CEO at the Northern Kentucky Children's Advocacy Center, said her organization conducted 788 forensic interviews in 2025, with sexual abuse playing a role in more than 80% of those cases."We are a nonprofit that works with children and families when there are allegations of abuse. So when there's an allegation that a crime has occurred to a child sexual abuse, criminal physical abuse, human trafficking cases that would rise to the criminal level, law enforcement and child protective services call us and we do the forensic interviews and victim advocacy for children who may have experienced a crime," Mason said.Mason said that grooming plays a crucial role in most child sexual abuse cases, as the majority of perpetrators are known to their victims."I think the percentage is 90% of people who commit a sexual abuse crime are known to the child, which means that most people have had contact with the child," Mason said. "They've set themselves up to be in a position where they have access to the child, and so grooming is a huge part of that."She described grooming as a deliberate process that desensitizes children to inappropriate behavior."Grooming is enabling someone to start that path towards hands-on sexual offenses. So talking about meeting up with them, using inappropriate language with a young child, maybe talking about sexual acts without asking them for those sexual acts," Mason said.Mason said she's happy about the legislation's potential to empower children to report inappropriate behavior before physical abuse occurs. She noted that historically, children who reported concerning behavior before physical abuse occurred had no legal recourse available. The legislation would validate children's instincts about inappropriate behavior, Mason said."Parents talk to kids all the time about that uh-oh feeling, or when something just doesn't feel right, say something, and before, there was nothing that could be done if they did speak up. And now I'm hopeful that something can be done about it," Mason said.Penalties based on severityUnder House Bill 4, grooming would be classified with different levels of severity depending on various factors, including the ages of perpetrators and victims and whether the perpetrator holds a position of authority.The bill would classify the offense as a Class A misdemeanor if the perpetrator is 18 or older and the victim is less than 14 years old. If the victim is under 12, it would be considered a Class D felony.However, if the perpetrator is in a position of authority, like a teacher or coach, it would be a Class D felony if the victim is under 18 or a Class C felony if the victim is under 12.Kelly explained the reasoning behind the different penalty levels. For those in positions of trust, the standards are stricter."A coach, teacher, a youth leader, something like that if you make any types of those behaviors to anyone who's under the age of 18, and as because of laws that have been passed by the General Assembly even last year, we know that people in these positions of trust, they're they're official and appropriate means of communication that they should be communicating with these people," Kelly said.Both Proctor and Kelly emphasized that the legislation sets a high standard for prosecution, requiring proof of intent and a pattern of behavior."This is a high bar. This is an intent bill. You've got to prove intent," Proctor said. "With this, it's got to be a pattern of behavior. And there's some things, you just see it when you see it."Kelly explained how prosecutors would establish intent in court."There's a kind of judicial law in our jurisdiction that says jurors can draw reasonable inferences from facts, and that's really how we would glean intent. It's hard to give you a strict, say, when someone does this, this will be grooming. It's going to be circumstantial. How are they communicating to this person? Why are they communicating with this person? Does this person have any reason to be asking these questions or doing these things?" Kelly said.The legislation includes specific protections to avoid criminalizing legitimate interactions between adults and minors, including educational communications, healthcare interactions, and job-related duties.This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. 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