HICKORY, North Carolina – Merchants who display sex toys in the view of children soon could find themselves in jail.

Hickory City Attorney John Crone is preparing an ordinance that would make offenders guilty of a Class I misdemeanor, the most serious misdemeanor classification.

It would come with a penalty of up to two years in prison and a fine.

The ordinance, requested by Mayor Rudy Wright, is intended to protect minors from exposure to sexually oriented devices found in retail shops.

Wright asked Crone at an April council meeting to research the law regarding sex devices and the display of obscene words in public.

“If the parents or merchants won’t protect them, then we need to protect them,” Wright said Tuesday night.

The ordinance would require shops to have its sex toys in separate rooms or display a sign restricting minors.

Crone initially reported to council his proposed ordinance, a Class II misdemeanor. Wright was stunned when Crone told him it would be comparable to shoplifting and some forms of trespassing.

“That boggles my mind,” Wright said, then asked Crone to strengthen the wording as much as possible.

Crone also analyzed case law regarding offensive speech on T-shirts.

Wright was offended in the spring when he observed a young man wearing a black T-shirt with a four-letter word in white lettering.

However, that area is clearly guarded by First Amendment rights, Crone said.

Crone is expected to return to council with the rewritten ordinance at a future meeting. A public hearing would be held before a council vote.