Child Exploitation

Child exploitation is a general term used to describe crimes where children are targeted for the offender’s personal gratification. Although there are a number of offenses against children that fall into the category of child exploitation, the most common include:

Child sex trafficking;
Possession, creation, and distribution of child pornography;
Child prostitution;
Child labor; and
Online solicitation of child prostitution.

Sex Trafficking

Florida Statute 787.06 prohibits child sex trafficking, which includes compelling, forcing, or coercing a child into becoming a prostitute, deriving support from the proceeds of child prostitution, and renting space to be used for child prostitution. Attempting any of these actions also qualifies as commercial sexual activity, which falls under the category of sex trafficking and child exploitation. Photographing, videotaping, managing, and producing sexually explicit performances that involve children is also prohibited regardless of whether the show is public, private, live, or recorded. As long as the act or show was intended to arouse or satisfy the sexual desires of someone else, a person can be convicted of child sex trafficking, which is charged as a life felony and carries a 30-year prison sentence.

Child Pornography

In Florida, it is also unlawful to knowingly use a minor under the age of 18 years old in the production of any picture, photograph, magazine, or film that depicts minors engaged in sexual conduct. To satisfy the legal definition of sexual conduct, the film or photograph must involve:

Actual or simulated sexual intercourse;
Any act that constitutes sexual battery;
Sadomasochistic abuse;
Physical contact with a person’s private parts;
Lewd exhibitions with the intent to gratify the sexual desire of another party; or
Simulations of sexual battery.

It is also unlawful to possess and distribute child pornography and a person accused of this offense can be charged with a third-degree felony, which is punishable by five years in prison. Furthermore, every act or transaction forbidden by Florida law constitutes a separate offense and will be charged as such, which could lead to a much longer sentence. Finally, a defendant’s ignorance of a minor’s age, a minor’s consent to participation in the film or photograph, or a child’s misrepresentation of his or her age cannot be raised as legitimate defenses even if the defendant legitimately believed that the child was of age.

Computer Pornography

It is also considered a separate offense for a person to use a computer for child pornography-related purposes, including to take the following actions:

Compile or transmit child pornography;
Allow someone else to transmit pornographic materials depicting children; and
Manufacture, print, or publish child pornography.

Florida law also specifically prohibits the purchase, sale, receipt, exchange, or dissemination of notices or advertisements containing specific information, including:

A minor’s name, address, and telephone number; and
A minor’s physical characteristics or other identifying information.

As long as this information is being used to offer, solicit, encourage, or facilitate sexual conduct of or with a minor, or the visual depiction of sexual conduct with a minor, a person can be charged with a third-degree felony.

Although there are defenses available to those being investigated for possession or distribution of child pornography, defendants are not permitted to raise the defense that an undercover officer was involved in the investigation of the offense.

Online Solicitation

Anyone who uses a computer to solicit, lure, or entice a child, in order to engage in sexual conduct with that child can be charged with a third-degree felony. This is true even if the person that the defendant thought was a child is actually an adult. As long as a defendant thought that a user was a child at the time of the contact, he or she can be prosecuted for online solicitation. Similar to possession of child pornography, each separate use of a computer to solicit a child will be charged as a separate offense, which can substantially lengthen a potential prison sentence. Finally, attempting to solicit a child’s parent to consent to sexual conduct on the child’s behalf is also considered online solicitation and a felony offense in Florida.

Traveling to Meet a Minor

Florida also prohibits any person from traveling, whether within the state, to the state, or from the state for the purpose of engaging in sexual conduct with a child after soliciting the child online. Those accused of this offense could be charged with a second-degree felony, even if they never actually met with the child, but only attempted to meet one or caused another person to do so.