Although prostitution continues to be big business in Waikiki, state legislators have taken important, needed steps this year in passing bills to increase penalties for engaging in this crime, especially to protect young girls and boys who have been victims.

The measures, aimed not only at pimps who make fortunes from the illegal activity but also at “johns” who solicit minors for sex acts, should become law.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie has already signed into law the addition of prostitution solicitation to the list of crimes that the offender cannot have erased from his or her criminal record. This rightly adds the weight of criminality for “johns” and holds them more accountable for their role in the offense.

A more important bill — Senate Bill 192 — would make soliciting someone under 18 years old a class C felony with a fine of $2,000 to $10,000, and a sentence of up to five years in jail.

As it is now, solicitation of a minor is just a petty misdemeanor with a $500 maximum fine and/or up to 30 days in jail.

“That’s equivalent to staying in a park after hours,” said Kathryn Xian, executive director of the Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery, a nonprofit aimed at stopping human trafficking in Hawaii and the Pacific.

Hawaii was given an “F” grade by Shared Hope International, which combats sex trafficking around the world and grades protections for victims of commercial exploi- tation.

“SB 192 is a particularly important bill when it comes to protecting children,” Honolulu Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro rightly said.

Also noteworthy is that if the bill becomes law, as it should, the “john” in a youth solicitation would be subject to forfeiture laws and would be added to the state’s sex offender registry.

These are needed penalties against those who prey on minors, a particularly vulnerable group who need as much help as possible to get off the streets.

Meanwhile, the fine for petty misdemeanor solicitation not involving a minor or a repeat instance would double to $1,000.

Honolulu police have arrested 35 men, 39 women and two juveniles this year for solicitation of prostitution. In only two cases, women arrested for prostitution agreed to identify their pimp and assisted in prosecution; police arrested the pimp and his “assistant.”

If SB 192 is signed into law, though, it remains to be seen if applying it will run into problems, as raised by some during the legislative session.

“Short of demanding to see the identification of the prostitute, there is no way for a customer to determine if the prostitute is a minor,” Hawaii Chief Public Defender Timothy Ho had testified.

And Kris Coffieki of IMUAlliance had urged unsuccessfully that legislators alter the bill to make it clear that the person charged with soliciting a minor “intentionally, knowingly or recklessly” offered or agreed to pay the minor for engaging in sexual conduct.

Cases will tell if defendants are able to achieve acquittals because of what Coffieki said could be “the so-called ‘mistake of age’ defense.”

Two other bills awaiting Abercrombie’s signature would require certain employers to display a poster with information about human trafficking and declare January as Human Trafficking Awareness Month. Those would help children often misidentified as “delinquents” and “runaways” get services and protection, Xian said.

Legislators passed bills two years ago that outlawed labor trafficking and expanded witness protection for victims of prostitution. Of course, prostitution will never disappear in Hawaii, but tough laws are needed to prevent expansion of the crime of sex trafficking.

This year’s proposed laws are on the right track in shifting prosecution focus away from prostitutes only and onto habitual customers and pimps — with special attention to sex crimes involving minors.