Democratic Florida state senator fights back over nude images stolen from her

[RandySF]

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- State Sen. Lauren Book often has told the story about how she was sexually abused by her nanny for six years when she was a child. She channeled the pain into a lifetime of helping other abuse survivors.

Now after years of working hard to heal herself and restore her life — running a non-profit to help victims, getting married, having children and winning her Senate seat — Book has been victimized again, this time by someone trying to extort her by threatening to reveal nude photos that were stolen from her.

What's worse: During the investigation, she learned that the images had been bought and traded online since 2020.

“I hate that this happened to me,” Book told The Associated Press in an interview. “I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. But I’ll take it, because I know that I can do something about it.”

Book is taking action as only a legislator can. While the pain came rushing back, so did her spirit to fight, and she's seeking a new law to try to prevent others from being victimized.

The bill sponsored by Book, a Democrat, got its first committee hearing Tuesday. It would strengthen Florida's revenge porn law by making it a felony to buy, sell or trade stolen sexually explicit images from someone's phone or other digital devices. It would also make disseminating altered or created sexually explicit images, known as deepfakes, a felony.

The Senate Criminal Justice Committee unanimously approved the bill.




https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/florida-senator-fights-back-nude-images-stolen-82458522?cid=social_twitter_abcn

[cinematicdiversions]

1. Good we need more people in jail and disenfranchised

Nice going turn your own pet cause into bad law that will make it easier to put poor people in jail.

Because that is what Florida needs more poor people in prison and not voting.

[CrackityJones75]

2. Maybe I am missing something here

You do not think not is a worthy law that tries to stop people from stealing others images and trading/selling them to others?

[harumph]

3. First they came for the porno...

[cinematicdiversions]

4. The law she proposed is much broader.

Basically it would allow the police to arrest you if you accessed a picture of another adult even if you had no knowledge it was stolen.. (or who the person was)

Not just arrest you but make it a felony.



It is just a bad law that makes any photo of an adult man or woman the equivalent of child porn from a legal standpoint.

Good luck on your next Google search.

It us simply a badly written broad law that is way to punitive. (Really a felony) expect woman to be arrested for possing nude pictures of themselves they don't own because someone else took the picture.. you get the idea.

Again it allows police to say we found a topless photo of a celebrity on your computer that was reported stolen in 2004. Your facing ten years.

[CrackityJones75]

7. I see.

There does seem to be some issues with the bill. However, some of that should be ironed out in committee no? I do think that someone stealing your property, and then using that to destroy your life is a serious issue. I had only read the story and that’s what it seemed like it was dealing with to me. There was a theft component the preceded the usage of the stolen property to cause malicious harm.

Though I do agree that from your description is is lacking parameters.

[cinematicdiversions]

8. The heavily republican committee seeing a gift horse passed it without comment.

Blackmail and theft are already crimes. The fact it was nude pictures rather than a diary or tax documents is irrelevant. Well, at least it should be.

We passed a hate crime law in Florida where if it is determined that racial animosity or slurs were used during the crime the punishment would be enhanced.

The majority of those convicted for hate crimes in Florida are African American males.

This is giving the prosecutors and police a very broad tool. (We found a nude photo on his phone, so we arrested him for a suspected felony while we check it out.)

With child porn generally there is a you know it when you see it quality.

This has no such protection. Is the topless picture of a model from a magazine shoot or stolen from her Icloud account. Who knows? Would you risk a felony charge to find out?

[CrackityJones75]

10. We have escalating factors for all sorts of crimes

From traffic violations to murder.

[LizBeth]

5. Because abusing women and girls is not a big deal at all. Think about the men.

[obamanut2012]

9. Just stop

I love finding pro revenge porn posts on DU. You would think it would be against TOS by now.

[cinematicdiversions]

12. Nobody is pro revenge porn It is already against the law with stiff penalties.

Perhaps you ought to read what she is actually proposing.

[kcr]

13. Well, that's certainly a take n/t

[hunter]

6. The stigma attached to "sexually explicit" photos needs to go away...

... however anyone might define "sexually explicit."

In some cultures "sexually explicit" could be states of undress shown on ordinary broadcast television here in the U.S.A..

At the same time anyone who hacks into a computer to obtain such photos, posts such photos as revenge against an ex, or coerces anyone to pose for such photos, ought to face some legal consequences and public shaming.

But many adults do willingly pose for such photos, for one reason or another, even with the knowledge the photos might go public. So we can't treat all such photos the same way we treat child porn.

If I ever ran for political office (God forbid!) my opponents might dig up some forty year old photos of naked me. Rather than being a political liability I'd hope most people would look at the photos and think, "Damn, that Hunter was hot!"

[leftyladyfrommo]

11. It would be awful to have such private things being passed around

on social media.

But really everyone gets naked. (except the Mormons that wear temple garments that are not supposed to ever have completely off). It's the human condition.