A standalone Senate funding request to bolster efforts to crack down on child predation online hasn’t yet attracted support across the rotunda, despite lawmakers’ ample emphasis on the disturbing issue in recent years.
Through a form filed in February, Miami Republican Sen. Ileana Garcia is seeking $2.1 million in grants for an automated analysis and workload optimization system supporting Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force programs in Florida.
The Senate, in turn, has proposed fully funding the request.
But so far, the House, which did not produce a companion request, is offering nothing.
The ICAC, according to its website, is a national initiative composed of 61 task forces of more than 5,400 law enforcement officers, who coordinate in investigating, prosecuting and developing responses to protect children from internet predators.
In Florida, there are three federally recognized ICAC task forces: the North Florida ICAC Task Force, led by the Gainesville Police Department; the Central Florida ICAC Task Force, led by the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office; and the South Florida ICAC Task Force, led by the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
In December, in Orlando, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement hosted the largest ICAC conference in the organization’s history.
Florida has spent recent years steadily expanding protections against internet child predation and exploitation, including tougher penalties for sex offenders, broader monitoring requirements and restrictions on minors’ access to social media platforms.
In 2024, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed bills that, among other things, allowed the death penalty for people who sexually assault children, hike penalties for online “grooming,” enable police to set up online stings to catch predators and require stricter registration guidelines for sex offenders.
Lawmakers also approved sweeping social media reforms barring children under 14 from operating certain social media accounts and requiring parental permission for 14- and 15-year-olds.
They went further last year, passing several measures that expanded protections for victims of AI-generated “deepfake” pornography, increased penalties and monitoring requirements for sexual offenders and predators, and expanded law enforcement’s ability to investigate and prosecute online exploitation crimes.
On the enforcement side, Florida officials have increasingly targeted online exploitation cases involving apps, chat platforms and child sexual abuse material, with Attorney General James Uthmeier this year touting more than 1,400 predator takedowns tied to online investigations and cybercrime enforcement efforts.
The funding in Garcia’s request, her form says, would cover the implementation and maintenance of a system that would “ingest and integrate disparate investigative data, automate casework, and provide a standard dashboard visualization for law enforcement investigating crimes against children.”
The form noted that last year, the Legislature approved $2.1 million for the same project.
Last year’s requester of the funds was listed as Office of Medical Marijuana Use State Director Bobbie Smith, who at the time of the request was Director of Legislative Affairs for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Eileen Stuart of the Vogel Group was listed as a lobbyist for the earmark.
In this year’s request, Will Grissom, who succeeded Smith as Director of Legislative and Cabinet Affairs for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, is listed as the requester, with no lobbyist named.
