Effective on July 1, 2014 any massage therapist licensed in Florida or any person with a Massage Establishment license must undergo a criminal background screening and fingerprinting before January 31, 2015. All new applicants for a massage license or massage establishment must undergo the same.
It appears that the intent behind this law is to stop or slow down human sex trafficking through the massage industry. While this is a noble cause and I applaud the efforts, I do question if the people who are committing these atrocities will actually be following the massage laws. It feels in many ways that it is only going to affect those of us who already operate within the law. Maybe I'm wrong, and please feel free to point my errors out to me on this. I'm just not one that enjoys the government making this harder for those of us who already follow the law. The Florida legislature has shown over the past few years just how unfriendly they are towards our industry.
