Florida lawmakers are introducing new legislation this session to correct a 2011 sexting law that wound up being unenforceable.
The original law aimed to keep minors who sent provocative photos from being labeled as sex offenders by making sexting a noncriminal violation for first-time offenders, according to the report from Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeals.
But a West Palm Beach assistant attorney general in 2013 dismissed a petition for delinquency concerning a minor sexting on the grounds that because sexting was noncriminal, it didn’t constitute a “violation of law” or a “delinquent act.”
“It made the statute unusable,” said Rep. Bobby DuBose, a co-sponsor of HB 845, which will make sexting legislation enforceable.
Sexting in regards to minors is defined by the 2014 Florida Statute as the use of “a computer, or any other device capable of electronic data transmission or distribution, to transmit or distribute to another minor any photograph or video of any person which depicts nudity.”
The case cited in the appeal concerns a teenage girl who sent a picture of her vagina via text message to a 13-year-old female classmate. The girl said she sent the photo “because she was ‘bored.’”
The House bill (HB 845) and a Senate bill (SB 1112) are currently moving through the legislature.
If the House bill passes the Judiciary Committee, it will go to the House floor for a vote.
The Senate bill had its first hearing in the Criminal Justice Committee on Monday and passed unanimously. It still has two committees to go through before it can go to the Senate floor for a vote.
If the bills pass both committees and both chambers, they will most likely go to a conference committee where differences between the bills would be resolved, said Lawrence Dodd, a Manning J. Dauer Eminent Scholar in political science at UF.
“The House and the Senate have to pass the final legislation in exactly the same language for it to become law,” Dodd said.
Under the 2011 law, minors who commit a first offense of sexting face eight hours of community service, a $60 penalty and/or mandatory completion of a cyber-safety program. The penalties remain unchanged in the new bill.
The new legislation will provide that the circuit court have exclusive jurisdiction of proceedings in which a minor reportedly commits a noncriminal violation and require that minors sign and accept a citation indicating a promise to appear before the juvenile court.
DuBose said he is hopeful that the bill will pass.
“It’s a good bill,” DuBose said. “When you do something to protect our most vulnerable, it’s always a good thing.”
[A version of this story ran on page 1 - 4 on 3/31/2015 under the headline “Fla. lawmakers propose bill to clarify sexting”]
