Concerning testimony of children.

SB 5169 expands the rules for how children's testimony is handled in legal proceedings. It allows statements made by children under the age of 18 (previously under 10 for some offenses) to be admissible in court for a wider range of crimes, including sexual contact, physical abuse, trafficking, and violent offenses, even if the act was against another child or a known person. The bill also broadens the circumstances under which a child under 18 can testify via one-way closed-circuit television in criminal cases. This includes situations where the child would be traumatized by the presence of the jury, in addition to trauma caused by the defendant's presence.