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Florida law treats certain online behavior toward children as a serious crime, and the people who engage in it are often described as online predators. The Department of Homeland Security’s Know2Protect initiative defines online child exploitation broadly: it covers using digital communication to target, groom, and sexually exploit or abuse a minor, and it usually starts with an adult building trust with a child before pushing for images, money, or an in-person meeting. NCMEC, which runs the national CyberTipline, describes the same pattern: an adult reaches out through social media, gaming platforms, or messaging apps, gains a child’s trust, then works to coerce that child into sending explicit images or agreeing to meet in person.
A typical example looks like this: a grown man poses as a teenager in a group chat or gaming platform, builds a rapport with a young girl over weeks, then pushes her to send sexually explicit photos or agree to meet up. That pattern, using deception to reach a minor for a sexual purpose, is exactly what Florida’s online predator statute was written to stop.
The Florida Statute That Actually Covers This Online Behavior Toward Children
The law most directly aimed at online predators is Florida Statute 847.0135, the Computer Pornography and Child Exploitation Prevention Act. Two parts of it matter most:
- 847.0135(3) makes it a third-degree felony to use a computer, phone, or other online service to seduce, solicit, lure, or entice a child, or someone an adult believes to be a child, for an unlawful sexual purpose.
- 847.0135(4), often called “traveling to meet a minor,” bumps the offense up to a second-degree felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison, once the adult actually travels or attempts to travel to meet the child.
Under this statute, it doesn’t matter if the “child” on the other end of the conversation turns out to be an undercover officer. The law was written that way on purpose, since so many of these cases start with a sting operation.
Related offense: Florida also has a separate law, F.S. 787.025, covering luring or enticing a child into or out of a building, home, or vehicle. As of October 1, 2025, that statute was amended to raise the protected age to under 14 and to make a first offense a third-degree felony (it was previously a misdemeanor). This statute applies more often to in-person luring situations than the purely online conduct 847.0135 was built to address, but the two can overlap in a single case.
How Seriously Do Federal Authorities Take This?
It’s worth understanding that these cases can be prosecuted at both the state and federal level. Federal prosecutors most often rely on:
- 18 U.S.C. § 2422(b), which criminalizes using the internet or any interstate communication to persuade, induce, entice, or coerce a minor into illegal sexual activity, carrying a mandatory minimum of 10 years;
- 18 U.S.C. § 2423, covering travel or transportation of a minor, or travel to meet a minor, for illicit sexual conduct;
- 18 U.S.C. §§ 2251, 2252, and 2252A, which address the production, distribution, and possession of child sexual abuse material.
These statutes were significantly strengthened by the federal PROTECT Act of 2003, which increased penalties and closed several gaps that had made these cases harder to prosecute.
On the investigative side, this work now falls under the FBI’s Violent Crimes Against Children program, which absorbed the FBI’s earlier Innocent Images initiative in 2012. That earlier program has its own history worth knowing: it grew out of a 1993 case in Brentwood, Maryland, where a 10-year-old boy named George “Junior” Burdynski disappeared, and investigators working the case out of the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office found that computers had been used to target him. That case is widely credited with pushing the FBI to launch a dedicated program in 1995 focused on online child exploitation, a program that has evolved several times since and now operates as part of the broader Violent Crimes Against Children effort.
What Happens After a Conviction
A conviction under either 847.0135 or 787.025, along with most other qualifying offenses involving minors, generally requires the offender to register as a sex offender under F.S. 943.0435, and in many cases that registration lasts for life. Federal convictions carry their own registration requirement under SORNA, the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act. Courts can also restrict or ban internet and computer use as a condition of probation, particularly when the underlying offense involved targeting a child online.
Every case turns on its own facts, and the specific charges, penalties, and registration consequences can vary depending on the details involved. Anyone facing an investigation or charge like this should talk to an attorney who handles these cases directly rather than relying on general information online.