SEX CRIMES DEFENSE  •  SOUTH FLORIDA

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Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) Charges in Florida: Your Freedom Is at Stake

Formerly prosecuted as “child pornography.” An accusation alone can destroy your career, your relationships, and your reputation. You need a criminal defense attorney who will fight aggressively to protect your rights, your liberty, and your future.

Updated for HB 1159 and Missy’s Law (HB 445), effective July 1, 2026. Florida has enacted the most significant rewrite of its child exploitation statutes in years. Among other changes, the statutes now use the term “child sexual abuse material” (CSAM) in place of “child pornography,” several offenses have been elevated, and new mandatory minimum prison terms apply. The new penalties apply to offenses committed on or after July 1, 2026. Conduct that occurred before that date is governed by the prior law. If your case crosses that date, the version of the statute that applies can itself become a contested legal issue.

 

Call (954) 925-3111

Evenings & Weekends: (954) 347-1000   |   Free, confidential consultation

 

Time is critical. If you are under investigation or have been arrested for a CSAM offense, do not speak to anyone. Call Alan S. Bernstein, P.A. immediately.

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The Terminology Change: Why “Child Sexual Abuse Material” Matters

Throughout the Florida Statutes, the term “child pornography” has been replaced with “child sexual abuse material,” abbreviated CSAM. The Legislature was explicit that this change does not alter the definition of the offense or the elements the State must prove, and prior judicial interpretations remain intact.

So why does it matter? Because words shape juries. The new terminology is more inflammatory by design. Defense counsel must be alert to how prosecutors deploy it in charging documents, jury selection, and closing argument. Where the language risks inflaming a jury beyond the evidence, motions in limine and careful voir dire become essential tools.

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Arrested or Under Investigation?

Few criminal accusations carry the devastating impact of a CSAM charge. Even before a conviction, the mere allegation can cost you your job, your family, your home, and your standing in the community. Friends will distance themselves. Employers will terminate you. The stigma is immediate and severe.

But an accusation is not a conviction. The prosecution must prove every element of its case beyond a reasonable doubt, and there are powerful defenses available to those who have been wrongly accused or improperly charged.

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South Florida criminal defense attorney Alan S. Bernstein has been fighting for the accused since 1981. With more than 35 years of experience handling serious sex crime cases in Broward, Palm Beach, Miami-Dade, Hendry, and Glades counties, he understands what is at stake, and he has the courtroom experience, legal knowledge, and strategic insight to fight these charges head-on.

By contacting our firm early in the process, ideally during the investigation phase and before formal charges have been filed, you give your defense the greatest possible advantage. Early intervention by an experienced criminal defense lawyer may limit the scope of the investigation and, in some cases, prevent charges from ever being filed.

 

“There are few things in our society that carry such a badge of shame as being charged with a sex crime. The only thing worse is being convicted of one.”

- Alan S. Bernstein, P.A.

 

Offenses We Defend

Our firm aggressively defends clients facing all CSAM and related charges, including:

• Possession of child sexual abuse material

• Intentional viewing of child sexual abuse material

• Distribution or transmission of child sexual abuse material

• Promotion of a sexual performance by a child

• Production of child sexual abuse material or use of a child in a sexual performance

• Possession or transmission of AI-generated or computer-generated child sexual abuse material

• Possession of child-like sex dolls

• Internet and computer-based sex crimes

• Transmission of material harmful to minors

• Traveling to meet a minor

• Online solicitation and sting operations

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Florida CSAM Laws & Penalties Under HB 1159

Florida aggressively prosecutes these offenses under multiple statutes. Every charge is a felony, and each individual image can be charged as a separate count, which means exposure to decades of imprisonment. HB 1159 elevated several offenses and attached mandatory minimum prison terms that strip judges of sentencing discretion. The penalties below reflect the law in effect for offenses committed on or after July 1, 2026.

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Possession or Intentional Viewing

Florida Statute § 827.071(5)

Knowingly possessing, controlling, soliciting, or intentionally viewing any photograph, video, image, data file, or computer depiction that includes child sexual abuse material. Each image is a separate offense.

  3rd Degree Felony  •  Up to 5 Years  

Subject to reclassification to a higher degree based on image count and content. See “Reclassification” below.

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Possession with Intent to Promote

Florida Statute § 827.071(4)

Possessing child sexual abuse material with the intent to distribute, promote, or share it. Possession of three or more copies is treated as prima facie evidence of intent to promote.

  2nd Degree Felony  •  Up to 15 Years  

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Use of a Child in a Sexual Performance (Production)   CHANGED BY HB 1159

Florida Statute § 827.071(2)

Employing, authorizing, or inducing a child to engage in a sexual performance, or producing or directing such a performance. HB 1159 elevated this offense from a second degree felony to a first degree felony and attached a mandatory minimum term for adult offenders.

  1st Degree Felony  •  15-Year Mandatory Minimum (offenders 18+)  •  Up to 30 Years  

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Aggravated Use of a Child Under 12 in a Sexual Performance   NEW UNDER HB 1159

New offense created by HB 1159

HB 1159 created a new life felony for aggravated use of a child younger than 12 in a sexual performance, carrying a substantial mandatory minimum for adult offenders.

  Life Felony  •  25-Year Mandatory Minimum for adult offenders  

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Promoting a Sexual Performance by a Child   CHANGED BY HB 1159

Florida Statute § 827.071(3)

Producing, directing, promoting, or distributing any depiction of a child’s sexual performance. The offense remains a second degree felony, but HB 1159 added a mandatory minimum for adult offenders.

  2nd Degree Felony  •  5-Year Mandatory Minimum for adults  •  Up to 15 Years  

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Transmission of CSAM   CHANGED BY HB 1159

Florida Statute § 847.0137

Knowingly transmitting child sexual abuse material, including across state lines using electronic devices. HB 1159 elevated this offense from a third degree felony to a second degree felony and added a mandatory minimum for adult offenders. In an era when a single tap can forward a file, this is one of the most consequential changes in the bill. This offense can also trigger federal jurisdiction and federal charges.

  2nd Degree Felony  •  5-Year Mandatory Minimum for adults  •  Up to 15 Years  

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AI-Generated / Computer-Generated CSAM: Creation   CHANGED BY HB 1159

Florida Statute § 827.072

Creating computer-generated material depicting a person who appears to be a minor engaged in sexual conduct. HB 1159 elevated the creation offense from a third degree felony to a second degree felony.

  2nd Degree Felony  •  Up to 15 Years  

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AI-Generated / Computer-Generated CSAM: Transmission   NEW UNDER HB 1159

New offense created by HB 1159

HB 1159 created an entirely new second degree felony for transmitting generated child sexual abuse material to another person, whether that person is inside or outside Florida.

  2nd Degree Felony  •  Up to 15 Years  

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Child-Like Sex Dolls   CHANGED BY HB 1159

Amended by HB 1159

HB 1159 reclassified possession of a child-like sex doll from a first degree misdemeanor to a third degree felony. A second offense is charged as a second degree felony.

  3rd Degree Felony (first offense)  •  2nd Degree Felony (second offense) 

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Repeat-Offender Mandatory Minimums   INCREASED BY HB 1159

Amended by HB 1159

HB 1159 increased the mandatory minimums for qualifying repeat offenders. Lewd or lascivious molestation by a person with a prior qualifying conviction increased from a 10-year to a 15-year mandatory minimum. Use of a child in a sexual performance and soliciting or buying of minors each increased from 20 to 30 years for qualifying repeat offenders. Critically, a prior case in which adjudication was withheld still counts as a qualifying prior, which makes the proof of any predicate conviction a contested issue worth litigating.

  Up to 30-Year Mandatory Minimums for qualifying repeat offenders  

 

Reclassification by Volume and Content   REVISED BY HB 1159

Florida Statute § 775.0847

Possession offenses are reclassified to the next higher felony degree when the accused possesses 10 or more images and at least one image depicts a child under 12, sadomasochistic abuse, sexual battery, sexual bestiality, or any video content of any length, with or without sound. Because video files are common in these prosecutions, the practical effect is that reclassification will apply in a large share of cases, potentially raising exposure toward life imprisonment.

  Charge reclassified one degree higher  •  Exposure up to Life  

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No Bond After Conviction: Missy’s Law (HB 445)   NEW COMPANION LAW

HB 445, effective July 1, 2026

Under the companion Missy’s Law, a defendant convicted of or pleading to a designated dangerous crime, a list now expanded to include certain computer pornography and child exploitation offenses, must be remanded to custody immediately and held without bond pending sentencing. The practice of remaining out on bond between verdict and sentencing is no longer available for these charges, which makes the outcome of the trial and plea phase even more decisive.

  Immediate remand  •  No bond between verdict and sentencing  

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Limited Exceptions Built Into the New Law

HB 1159 contains two provisions that experienced defense counsel must know, because the State has no obligation to volunteer them.

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The Romeo and Juliet Safety Valve

A court is not required to impose the new mandatory minimums on the sexual performance and transmission offenses if it makes written findings that the child depicted was 14 or older when the image was created, the image was created with the depicted child’s permission, the offender was not more than four years older than the depicted child, and the offender never transmitted the image to any third party. This provision exists because teenagers exchange images with each other, and the Legislature recognized that a 19-year-old with a consensual image from a 16-year-old partner is not the predator these laws were written to reach. Whether a court exercises that discretion often turns on how thoroughly the defense develops and presents those facts.

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The Good Faith Reporting Safe Harbor

A person cannot be prosecuted for providing a link, access credential, or other information in good faith to law enforcement, a prosecutor, or an authorized forensic examiner for the purpose of reporting suspected material, cooperating with an investigation, preserving evidence, or seeking removal of content. If you encountered material and acted to report it or have it removed, that context can be central to your defense.

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Aggressive Defense Strategies

Harsher penalties do not relieve the State of its burden of proof. They make rigorous defense work more important, not less. Our firm examines every fact, every piece of digital evidence, and every action taken by law enforcement to build the strongest possible defense.

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• Illegal Search and Seizure

Nearly every CSAM prosecution begins with a digital search: a CyberTip from an electronic service provider, an ICAC task force investigation, a peer-to-peer monitoring tool, or a search warrant for a home and its devices. Each link in that chain is open to constitutional challenge. Was the warrant supported by probable cause, or did the affidavit rely on stale information or boilerplate? Did the search exceed the warrant’s scope? Did law enforcement improperly expand on a private search? When the search fails, the evidence falls, and with it the case.

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• Lack of Knowledge or Intent

Florida law requires that the accused knowingly possessed, controlled, or intentionally viewed the material. Modern forensics frequently cannot answer the questions that matter: who was at the keyboard, whether files arrived through automatic peer-to-peer downloads, whether images sat unviewed in a browser cache or in unallocated space, and whether a shared computer, an open Wi-Fi network, or malware places reasonable doubt on who possessed what. A qualified defense forensic expert is often the difference in these cases.

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• Shared or Accessible Devices

Computers, tablets, and phones are often used by multiple people: family members, roommates, coworkers, or guests. The prosecution must prove that you were the person who possessed, downloaded, or viewed the content. If others had access to the device, establishing your personal possession becomes far more difficult for the State.

 

• Content Does Not Meet the Legal Definition

Not all material involving minors qualifies as CSAM under Florida law. The images must depict a minor engaged in legally defined sexual conduct. If the material does not meet that statutory definition, the charges may not hold.

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• Age of the Person Depicted

These statutes apply only to images of persons under the age of 18. If the defense can establish that the individuals depicted were in fact adults, even if they appear young, the charges should not stand.

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• Constitutional Challenges to the Generated-Material Provisions

The expanded AI provisions raise serious First Amendment questions. In Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, 535 U.S. 234 (2002), the United States Supreme Court held that purely computer-generated material involving no real child cannot be criminalized as child pornography consistent with the First Amendment, although material that is obscene or that uses an identifiable real child stands on different footing. How Florida’s expanded generated-material offenses fare under that precedent, and how the State proves whether a real, identifiable child appears in synthetic content, will be litigated heavily in the years ahead. Defendants charged under these new sections should expect both facial and as-applied challenges.

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• Entrapment and Sting Operation Defenses

Many of these prosecutions arise from undercover operations, and in South Florida an increasing number arise from civilian vigilante groups who conduct their own stings and hand the results to police. Florida recognizes both objective and subjective entrapment defenses. If an undercover officer or agent encouraged, persuaded, or pushed you into committing an act you would not otherwise have committed, entrapment may serve as a complete defense. Evidence gathered by untrained civilians operating without warrants, supervision, or preservation protocols presents its own reliability and due process problems, and those issues do not disappear because penalties went up.

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• Challenging Digital Forensic Evidence

These cases rely heavily on digital forensic evidence: browser histories, metadata, file timestamps, and IP addresses. That evidence is complex, technical, and frequently misinterpreted. Our firm works with independent digital forensic experts to scrutinize the State’s evidence, challenge faulty analysis, and expose procedural errors in how data was collected, preserved, and analyzed.

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• Mandatory Minimum and Reclassification Litigation

The new sentencing architecture creates new issues. Did the State properly charge and prove the elements that trigger a mandatory minimum? Do the image count and content findings supporting reclassification hold up? Does a withheld adjudication actually qualify as a predicate? Does the written-findings exception apply? Each of these is a fight worth having, because the difference between a guidelines sentence and a 15, 25, or 30 year mandatory minimum is the difference between a future and none.

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• Reporting Immunity and Safe Harbor

Under Florida Statute § 847.0139, a person who discovers child sexual abuse material and reports it to law enforcement is immune from civil liability. HB 1159 adds a separate good faith reporting safe harbor against criminal prosecution, described above. If you came across content and took steps to report it or have it removed, that context is critical to your defense.

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What Is at Stake

A CSAM conviction in Florida carries consequences that extend far beyond prison time. The impact is permanent, life-altering, and reaches nearly every aspect of your existence.

• Prison sentences: Felony convictions now carry mandatory minimums of 5, 15, 25, or 30 years for many offenses, with reclassification raising exposure toward life imprisonment.

• No bond after conviction: Under Missy’s Law, conviction or a plea on a designated offense means immediate remand to custody with no bond pending sentencing.

• Sex offender registration: Lifetime mandatory registration, with your photo, address, and personal information made public.

• Residency restrictions: Severe limits on where you can live, often barring residence near schools, parks, or childcare facilities.

• Career destruction: Loss of professional licenses, termination, and near-permanent difficulty finding work in most fields.

• Loss of civil rights: Convicted felons lose the right to vote, serve on a jury, and possess firearms under Florida law.

• Federal exposure: Many state cases also trigger federal investigation, which carries its own mandatory minimum sentences of 5 to 20 years.

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If You Are Under Investigation, Read This Now

• Do NOT speak to the police. They are not trying to help you.

• Do NOT consent to a search of your home, phone, or computer.

• Do NOT make any statements to investigators or detectives.

• Do NOT agree to take a voice stress test or polygraph.

• Do NOT discuss your case with friends, family, or on social media.

• Do NOT attempt to delete files or destroy any device.

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The single most important thing you can do right now is exercise your right to remain silent and call an experienced criminal defense attorney immediately. With mandatory minimums and the loss of bond after conviction, the earliest decisions in a case are often the most important ones. Cases are won or lost on suppression motions, forensic challenges, and charging decisions long before any jury is sworn.

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Why Choose Alan S. Bernstein, P.A.?

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When your freedom, your future, and your way of life are on the line, you cannot afford an inadequate defense. You need an attorney who understands the complexities of sex crime law, who has the courtroom experience to challenge the prosecution at every turn, and who will fight relentlessly on your behalf.

Alan S. Bernstein, P.A. has dedicated his entire career exclusively to criminal defense. For more than 35 years, he has stood beside the accused in courtrooms throughout South Florida, building aggressive defense strategies that challenge the evidence, question the investigation, and protect the constitutional rights of his clients.

• 35+ years exclusively criminal defense. Fighting for the accused since 1981. Criminal law is all we do.

• Extensive sex crimes trial experience. A proven track record defending clients against the most serious charges in South Florida.

• Pre-charge intervention. Early involvement during the investigation phase can prevent charges from ever being filed.

• Personalized attention. Your case is not a number. You receive direct, personal attention from your attorney at every stage.

• Serving all of South Florida. Broward, Palm Beach, Miami-Dade, Hendry, and Glades counties.

• Available evenings and weekends. Emergencies do not wait, and neither do we. Call (954) 347-1000 after hours.

 

Your Freedom Is Worth Fighting For

Do not wait for the prosecution to build its case against you. Every day you delay is a day the State uses to strengthen its position. The new law took these cases from severe to unforgiving. Contact Alan S. Bernstein, P.A. now for a free, confidential consultation and begin building the aggressive defense your case demands.

 

Main Office: (954) 925-3111

Evenings & Weekends: (954) 347-1000   |   Email: alanbernsteinlaw@gmail.com

 

Written by Alan S. Bernstein, P.A.   |   floridacriminaldefensepro.com

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This page describes Florida law as amended by HB 1159 and HB 445 (Missy’s Law), effective July 1, 2026. The new penalties apply to offenses committed on or after that date; earlier conduct is governed by prior law. The information on this website is for general information purposes only. Nothing on this site should be taken as legal advice for any individual case or situation. This information is not intended to create, and receipt or viewing does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship. If you are facing charges, consult a qualified Florida criminal defense attorney about the specific facts of your case.

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© 2026 by Alan S. Bernstein P.A.