Senate adds ‘anti-grooming’ to online child exploitation bill

This stipulates that an “adult who engages in a pattern of communication to a minor that includes explicit and detailed verbal descriptions or narrative accounts of sexual activity, sexual conduct, or sexual excitement and that is harmful to minors commits a felony of the third degree.””

The House passed legislation enhancing penalties for child exploitation online. Still, the Senate is adding new language as it passes unanimously, meaning the House will have to reconsider this anew.

Republican Sen. Jonathan Martin substituted Republican Rep. Jessica Baker’s bill (HB 1545) for his identical product. Still, he offered an amendment targeting what the sponsor called “grooming language,” called “harmful communication to a minor” in the bill rather than the word “grooming” itself as it was in previous versions of the language.

This stipulates that an “adult who engages in a pattern of communication to a minor that includes explicit and detailed verbal descriptions or narrative accounts of sexual activity, sexual conduct, or sexual excitement and that is harmful to minors commits a felony of the third degree.”

The new language also says a “person’s ignorance of a minor’s age, a minor’s misrepresentation of his or her age, a bona fide belief of a minor’s age, or a minor’s consent may not be raised as a defense in a prosecution for a violation of this section,” removing the potential for victim blaming from the bill language.

Martin suggested wiggle room, such as when an 18-year-old communicates with a 17-year-old, as being something that would govern the interpretation of this language. Likewise, “sex education” that isn’t “harmful” likely wouldn’t qualify for the felony penalty.

The legislation is otherwise unchanged.

It would increase the points that prosecutors and Judges use in the offense severity ranking chart formula to determine penalties for a variety of heinous crimes involving “possession, promotion, and production of child sexual abuse material.” It seeks to remedy Florida’s relative leniency on online child exploitation as compared to other states and the federal government.

These include prohibiting a person from using a child in a sexual performance, prohibiting a person from promoting a sexual performance by a child, prohibiting a person from possessing child pornography with the intent to promote, and prohibiting a person from possessing or intentionally viewing child pornography.

“By increasing the offense severity ranking of specified child exploitation offenses, the bill may increase the minimum sentence to which a person convicted of such an offense may be sentenced and may increase a term of incarceration required to be imposed as part of that sentence,” a legislative bill analysis notes.

This could lead to more people going to prison for longer stretches for these offenses.

“The bill may have a positive indeterminate impact on jail and prison beds by increasing the OSRC ranking for specified child exploitation offenses, which may result in increased prison admissions or longer terms of incarceration for persons convicted of such offenses,” reads an analysis of the legislation.

A.G. Gancarski has written for FloridaPolitics.com since 2014. He is based in Northeast Florida. He can be reached at AG@FloridaPolitics.com or on Twitter: @AGGancarski.