What it covers
Intentionally posting or sending a sexual image of you without your consent, when you reasonably expected it to stay private and the image, or what is posted with it, identifies you.
Private Again · Florida law
Is revenge porn a crime in Florida? Yes. And you can sue the person who did it.
Florida has three laws for this. One covers images that were shared, one covers images that were stolen or sold, and one covers AI fakes. Each lets you sue.
If someone shared intimate images of you without your permission, the law treats you as the wronged party, and it gives you specific remedies. This page explains them in plain English. Talk to us before you decide anything. Please do NOT send us the images; we do not need them to have that conversation.
- Based on the current Florida Statutes
- Please do NOT send us the images
- Under 18 in the images? Go to the police, not to us
Florida statute 784.049
Someone shared your images
This is the main Florida revenge porn law. Its legal name is “sexual cyberharassment.” It does not require revenge, and the person who shared the images does not have to be an ex.
It is a crime
Sharing intimate images this way is a crime in Florida. Criminal charges are one remedy. Your civil claim, described below, is separate and does not depend on them.
You can sue
The same law gives you a civil claim against the person who shared the images: a court order to stop, money damages starting at $10,000, punitive damages, and your attorney fees.
Where they live does not save them
If the harm reached you in Florida, Florida law applies, even if the person who shared the images lives somewhere else.
Why the details matter
Whether what happened to you fits this law depends on the facts, and the law does not spell out its own filing deadline. That is what a case review is for.
The question everyone asks first
I sent the picture myself. Does that end it?
No. Florida law addresses this directly: sending a private image to someone does not, on its own, give up your reasonable expectation that it stays private. Consent to one person seeing it is not consent to anyone else seeing it.
Who you sent it to, and what was said at the time, still matter. Those are the first things we ask about.
Florida statute 836.14
Your images were stolen, or someone is selling them
A second Florida law covers images that were taken from your phone, cloud, or account, and images that someone is making money from.
Stolen to share
Stealing your intimate images with the intent to share them is a crime.
Sold or posted for money
Promoting your images for money, whether by selling them or posting them for profit, is a crime. So is knowingly holding stolen images in order to sell them.
Every copy counts
Each separate act of stealing, holding, or promoting the images is its own violation.
You can sue
This law also gives you a civil claim: a court order to stop, money damages starting at $10,000, and your attorney fees.
Why the details matter
This law does not cover images involving voluntary exposure in a public or commercial setting. Whether your images fall inside the law is something we settle before anyone is sued.
Florida statute 836.13
AI fakes and edited images
Florida’s third law covers sexual images that were faked or edited to look like you. Creating one without your consent, or promoting one, is a crime, and you can sue the people who created or promoted it. Websites that are covered by the law have 48 hours to take a reported fake down.
The deepfakes page explains this law.
A different kind of claim
Recorded without your knowledge
The three laws above are about images that were shared, stolen, sold, or faked. A secret recording that was never shared is handled differently. Secretly recording someone is a crime in Florida, but that statute does not create a civil claim.
You may still have a civil claim. Florida courts recognize a claim for intruding into someone’s private space, including electronically. Whether it fits your situation depends on the facts of your case.
What you can sue for
Each of the three Florida laws gives you a civil claim.
- Someone shared the images (784.049): a court order to stop, money damages of $10,000 or your actual losses, whichever is more, punitive damages, and your attorney fees and costs.
- The images were stolen or sold (836.14): a court order to stop, money damages of $10,000 or your actual losses, whichever is more, and your attorney fees and costs.
- The images were faked or edited (836.13): a court order to stop, money damages of $10,000 or your actual losses, whichever is more, and your attorney fees and costs, against the people who made or shared them.
Every figure on this page is what the statute allows. What a case is worth depends on the evidence, who the defendant is, and what a court or jury finds. No outcome is guaranteed.
Bring us every date you have. There is a deadline to sue, and it can start earlier than you would expect. The date the images first appeared, and the date of every repost you know about, are the first facts we need.
Which laws fit, who can be sued, and how much time is left are the three questions a free, confidential case review answers before anything is filed. You can also call (561) 455-4455.
Florida revenge porn law, questions answered
Short answers, based on the current Florida Statutes.
It is a crime in Florida, and depending on the circumstances it can be charged as a felony. Separately from any criminal case, the same laws give you a civil claim for a court order and money damages.
Section 784.049, Florida Statutes, called “sexual cyberharassment.” Two related laws are section 836.14 (stolen or sold images) and section 836.13 (AI fakes and edited images).
Not under these Florida laws. They are aimed at the person who shared, stole, sold, or faked the images, not at the website that only hosts them. Websites do have their own duty to take images down, covered on the what-to-do-tonight page.
If the harm reached you in Florida, Florida law treats it as a Florida offense. Whether a Florida court can reach an out-of-state person in a civil case is a separate question that depends on the facts, and it is one we look at in your case review.
Yes. Florida statute 836.14 covers intimate images stolen from a phone, cloud, or account, and images someone is selling or posting for money. Both are crimes, and the law gives you a civil claim for a court order, $10,000 or your actual losses, whichever is more, and attorney fees.
Yes. Florida statute 836.13 covers sexual images that were faked or edited to look like a real, identifiable person. Creating or sharing one without consent is a crime, and you can sue the people who made or shared it. See the deepfakes page.
Florida law addresses this directly: sending a private image to someone does not, on its own, give up your reasonable expectation that it stays private. Consent to one person seeing it is not consent to anyone else seeing it.
No. Florida’s law does not require revenge, a relationship, or any particular motive. It covers anyone who intentionally shares a sexual image of you without your consent when you expected it to stay private.
A court order to stop, money damages of $10,000 or your actual losses, whichever is more, and your attorney fees and costs. For images that were shared, Florida law also allows punitive damages. Federal law adds a separate claim with $150,000 in liquidated damages; see the federal law page.
These laws do not state their own deadline; it comes from Florida’s general time limits, and the clock can start when the images were first posted rather than when you found them. Bring every date you have, and do not assume you have years.
There is also a federal law
Federal law gives you a separate claim with $150,000 in liquidated damages, meaning a fixed amount set by the statute, and the option to sue under a pseudonym.