🔻California officially bans child marriage.

Gavin Newsom, the governor of the U.S. state of California, signed a law aimed at putting an end to a practice that still remains legal in 32 U.S. states.

Under the new law, which will take effect on January 1, people must be 18 years old to marry in California.

Mr. Newsom described this move as a step that “should have been taken long ago to protect young people and people under the legal age in California.”

He turned the bill into law in the presence of “Courtney Stodden,” who married a 50-year-old Hollywood actor at the age of 16 with her parents’ consent.

Ms. Stodden, who had been trying to end this practice, called the signing of the law a “victory” and said that victims of child marriage “should never have been expected to carry such a burden.”

Women’s rights activists say that many people in the United States do not even know that child marriage is legal in many states of the country, or that this phenomenon has led to cases of abuse and exploitation. 📷NurPhoto via Getty