MI Reconsiders Sex Offender Law For Teens

LANSING (WWJ) - The state Legislature has been looking at a plan that could make some revisions to the policy of putting teenagers on the sexual offender list.

Under the current policy, teenagers are included on the same list as adult offenders.

With the new plan, many teenagers cited for having consensual sex with minors would no longer be listed on Michigan's sex offender registry.

Republican state Senator Rick Jones, from Grand Ledge, is a supporter of the change.

"Totally consensual. A typical example would be a boyfriend and girlfriend in highschool, 17-year-old boy with a 15-year-old girl. They will not be on the offender list," Jones explained. "Anyone that's on there now will be able to petition the judge to get off the list. And that's what has needed to been done for many, many years."

Teenagers will stay off the list completely if the offender was not more than four years older than the victim.