§ 45-5-711 — Child Sex Trafficking

45-5-711 . Child sex trafficking. (1) A person commits the offense of child sex trafficking by purposely or knowingly:
(a) committing the offense of sex trafficking with a child; or
(b) recruiting, transporting, transferring, harboring, receiving, providing, obtaining, isolating, maintaining, enticing, or using a child, or in the case of recruiting or enticing, a person, including a law enforcement officer using an undercover or fictitious identity, whom the offender believes to be a child, for the purposes of commercial sexual activity.
(2) (a) A person convicted of the offense of child sex trafficking shall be imprisoned in the state prison for a term of 100 years. The court may not suspend execution or defer imposition of the first 25 years of a sentence of imprisonment imposed under this subsection (2)(a) except as provided in 46-18-222 (1) through (4). During the first 25 years of imprisonment, the offender is not eligible for parole. The exceptions provided in 46-18-222 (5) and (6) do not apply.
(b) In addition to the sentence of imprisonment imposed under subsection (2)(a), the offender:
(i) must be fined in the amount of $400,000; and
(ii) if released after the mandatory minimum period of imprisonment, is subject to supervision by the department of corrections for the remainder of the offender's life and shall participate in the program for continuous, satellite-based monitoring provided for in 46-23-1010 .
(3) It is not a defense in a prosecution under this section:
(a) that a child consented to engage in commercial sexual activity; or
(b) that the defendant believed the child was an adult. Absolute liability, as provided in 45-2-104 , is imposed.

Legislative History

En. Sec. 6, Ch. 666, L. 2023; amd. Sec. 5, Ch. 102, L. 2025.