This bill, titled the Protect Our Children Act, creates a new Florida law requiring manufacturers of tablets and smartphones sold for use in the state to have a content filter enabled when the device is first activated in Florida, beginning January 1, 2026. The filter must block access to material harmful to minors across mobile data, wired and wireless internet, and manufacturer-controlled apps, notify the user when content is blocked, allow unblocking only with a password, and be difficult for non-password holders to disable or remove. The bill also creates civil and criminal liability for manufacturers that do not comply, and it allows the Attorney General and parents or legal guardians to sue for penalties, damages, injunctions, and attorney fees. It further imposes liability on non-parent adults who enable the password to remove the filter on a minor’s device if the minor then accesses harmful material.
Beyond the device-filter mandate, the bill increases penalties for adults who lure or entice children under 12 into a structure, dwelling, or conveyance for unlawful purposes. It also creates a new offense, “harmful communication with a minor,” covering certain sexually explicit or grooming-related communications and online attempts to solicit minors to share nude images, with higher penalties when the minor is under 12. The bill updates the Criminal Punishment Code ranking chart to include the new offense and revises Florida’s sexual offender registration statutes so that the new offense is treated as a registrable sexual offense for purposes of registration, notification, bail, probation, and related collateral consequences. The bill also reenacts numerous cross-references in other statutes to conform to those changes.
The bill’s impact on state law is broad. It adds a new regulatory scheme for smartphone and tablet manufacturers, creates new private and public enforcement mechanisms, and expands criminal penalties and registration consequences tied to child exploitation and online grooming conduct. It also affects a wide range of existing statutes governing sexual offender registration, public notification, bail eligibility, probation and community control, child custody and time-sharing, background screening, name changes, voting rights restoration, and record sealing/expunction, largely by incorporating the new offense into existing lists of disqualifying or reportable conduct.
The general sentiment reflected in the bill text is strongly protective of minors and punitive toward conduct viewed as predatory or exploitative. Even without committee transcripts or recorded votes, the structure and title indicate a child-safety and anti-exploitation focus, with the bill aiming to prevent minors from accessing harmful online material and to increase consequences for adults who target children. The bill’s tone is assertive and enforcement-oriented, emphasizing civil penalties, criminal penalties, and expanded state oversight.
The main points of contention likely concern the scope and feasibility of the device-filter requirement, the burden placed on manufacturers, and the privacy or free-expression implications of mandatory filtering. The bill also raises potential concerns about enforcement against third parties who help remove filters, the breadth of the new “harmful communication” offense, and how the new criminal provisions interact with existing sexual offender registration and collateral consequences. Because the available context includes no committee debate or vote history, no specific opposition or amendment positions can be identified from the record provided.
The bill creates new section 501.173, Florida Statutes, imposing a Florida-specific content-filter requirement on tablets and smartphones activated in the state and authorizing civil, criminal, and administrative enforcement against noncompliant manufacturers and other persons. It also amends section 787.025 to increase penalties for luring or enticing a child under 12, creates section 827.12 to criminalize harmful communications with minors, and updates the Criminal Punishment Code ranking chart. In addition, it revises numerous statutes tied to sexual offender registration, public notification, bail, probation, child custody, background screening, and record sealing to incorporate the new offense and related registration consequences.
The bill appears to be driven by a strong child-protection and anti-exploitation policy goal. Its text reflects a clear intent to restrict minors’ access to harmful online material and to strengthen criminal penalties for adults who target children, suggesting generally supportive sentiment among proponents of tougher safeguards for minors. No committee transcripts or votes were provided, so there is no recorded legislative debate to indicate formal support or opposition beyond the bill’s own framing.
Likely areas of contention include whether Florida can or should require device manufacturers to enable filters by default, whether the filtering mandate is technically workable and enforceable, and whether the law could create unintended burdens for manufacturers, parents, or lawful users. The new offense for harmful communication with a minor may also be controversial because it reaches online communications and patterns of behavior that could be argued to be broad or difficult to distinguish from protected speech or legitimate educational or medical conversations. The bill’s expansion of sexual offender registration and related collateral consequences may also draw concern from those focused on proportionality and due process.