Florida Senate Bill 1618 was filed on January 6, 2012. This bill revised the definition of the term “child pornography” to include visual depiction that has been “created, adapted, or modified to appear that a minors engaged in sexual conduct.
Although Media Coalition is deeply concerned about the actual exploitation of minors and support laws that attempt to eradicate it, we believe the bill would criminalize materials that is fully protected by the First Amendment and does not sexually exploit minors. The legislation was also constitutionally suspect to the extent the legislation would apply to images of adults who appear to be minors or to images that appear to be minors but were created without involvement of an actual minor, be they drawn, sculpted created on a computer or otherwise.
Actions: Senate Bill 1618 was referred to the Criminal Justice, Judiciary, and Budget committees on January 17, 2012. Media Coalition submitted a letter of opposition to the Senate on January 13, 2012. The bill died in Criminal Justice.