No. CS/SB 398
Filed under Criminal Justice.
Child Pornography Terminology; Replacing the terms “pornography” and “child pornography” with the term “child sexual abuse material”, etc.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDThe bill replaces the term “child pornography” with “child sexual abuse material” across 20 Florida statutes. This is a terminology update that does not change the underlying criminal penalties or definitions.
The change affects how the law is written and spoken, but the legal requirements for offenses like possession, production, and transmission remain exactly the same as before.
No new crimes are created, and no existing penalties are increased or decreased. The bill simply updates the language to align with modern terminology used by law enforcement and victim advocacy groups.
The updated term is now used in criminal codes, civil remedies, and victim assistance programs to ensure consistency throughout the state's legal framework.
AIReplaces the term "child pornography" with "child sexual abuse material" across 20 statutes, including criminal, civil, and administrative provisions.
AIDefines "child sexual abuse material" as any image depicting a minor engaged in sexual conduct or an image created, altered, adapted, or modified to portray an identifiable minor engaged in sexual conduct.
AIDefines "generated child sexual abuse material" as any image created, altered, adapted, or modified by electronic, mechanical, or other computer-generated means to portray a fictitious person who a reasonable person would regard as being a real person younger than 18 years of age.
AIRequires that property or material constituting child sexual abuse material remain secured or locked in the care of law enforcement, the state attorney, or the court, and mandates that courts deny requests by defendants to copy, photograph, duplicate, or otherwise reproduce such material.
AIAllows a person who, while under 18, was a victim of a sexual abuse crime where any portion of such abuse was used in the production of child sexual abuse material to bring a civil action against the producer, promoter, or possessor of such images or movies.
AIProvides that any person who reports to a law enforcement officer what the person reasonably believes to be child sexual abuse material may not be held civilly liable for such reporting.
AIAllows the department to award compensation for counseling and other mental health services to treat psychological injury or trauma to a person who, while younger than age 18, was depicted in any image or movie of child sexual abuse material and suffers psychiatric or psychological injury as a direct result of the crime.