Officials always fully prosecute this type of crime. In Florida, it is a third-degree felony to possess any child pornography of any form. Each individual photo is punishable by up to five years prison time, which includes duplicate images. Prosecutors can request even more prison time if the materials display specific acts or depict any child younger than five years of age.

Officials must prove these charges beyond all reasonable doubt, in order to obtain a conviction—meaning they must show strong evidence the defendant, in fact owned the materials in question. This gets tricky if the defendant is accused of an internet offense and uses a shared laptop or desktop computer or any computer that is infected with viruses or third-party software that alters files in the computer’s caches, histories, and hard drives. Prosecutors must be able to prove you were the user who in fact perpetrated a cybersex crime.

There are numerous other factors to consider in these cases. If you are arrested for the possession or distribution of illegal and illicit content on the Internet, you need to contact our office now. These are extremely serious criminal charges that will affect your life permanently if you do not have a thorough and competent defense. When you have been arrested for a crime involving child pornography, for example, you are facing more than a prison sentence. Most states will require you to register as a sex offender, creating a stigma that follows for life.

Prosecutors and law enforcement personnel never go easy on individuals accused of child pornography or other illegally transmitted media on the Internet. Since catching and prosecution child sex offenders have been sensationalized by prime-time TV, high-profile cases can easily gain instant and widespread exposure.