The crime
A person who “willfully and maliciously” sexually cyberharasses another commits a first-degree misdemeanor. With one prior conviction, a second offense is a third-degree felony.
Private Again · Florida law · 2026 Florida Statutes
Is revenge porn a crime in Florida? Yes. And the same statute lets you sue.
Florida statute 784.049 makes it a crime and gives you a civil claim. Two more statutes cover stolen images and AI fakes.
This page quotes the statutes as they read in the 2026 Florida Statutes, then says plainly what the text leaves open. Federal law adds a fourth claim, and all of them are filed together in one federal case; this page is the Florida half. The open questions are the reason to talk to us before you decide anything. Please do NOT send us the images; we do not need them to have that conversation.
- Text quoted from the 2026 Florida Statutes
- Statute 784.049 last amended effective October 1, 2025
- Please do NOT send us the images
- Under 18 in the images? Go to the police, not to us
Fla. Stat. § 784.049
What Florida statute 784.049 says
The statute is titled “Sexual cyberharassment.” It never uses the words “revenge porn,” and it does not require revenge. Here is the operative language.
The definition, subsection (2)(c). To “sexually cyberharass” means “to intentionally publish to an Internet website or intentionally disseminate through electronic means to another person a sexually explicit image of a person without the depicted person’s consent and contrary to the depicted person’s reasonable expectation that the image would remain private,” where the image contains or conveys the person’s identifying information, or that information is published alongside it so a viewer would reasonably know who is depicted. The subsection ends: “Evidence that the depicted person sent a sexually explicit image to another person does not, on its own, remove his or her reasonable expectation of privacy for that image.”
Done for money
A violation “for the purpose of pecuniary or any other financial gain” is a third-degree felony the first time and a second-degree felony after that.
Your civil claim
“An aggrieved person may initiate a civil action” for injunctive relief; “$10,000 or actual damages incurred as a result of a violation of this section, whichever is greater”; punitive damages; and reasonable attorney fees and costs.
Who is out, and where it applies
Platforms that only transmit or store other people’s content, and law enforcement acting on duty, are exempt from both the criminal and civil penalties. The offense is committed in Florida if any element of it, or any harm to the depicted person, occurs here.
What the text does not answer
The civil claim requires a “violation of this section,” and the offense requires that the person acted “willfully and maliciously.” No Florida appellate court has yet said what “maliciously” means under this statute, and none has decided an appeal in a civil case brought under subsection (7). The statute also states no filing deadline on its face; the deadline comes from Florida’s general limitations law, and when it starts running is a question for your facts, not the statute. Those two gaps are where a case is won or lost, and they are what a case review is for.
The question everyone asks first
I sent the picture myself. Does that end it?
No. The Legislature wrote the answer into the statute. Its findings open with this: “A person depicted in a sexually explicit image taken with the person’s consent may retain a reasonable expectation that the image will remain private despite sharing the image with another person.” And the definition closes with the sentence quoted above: sending the image to someone “does not, on its own, remove” your expectation of privacy.
What the text leaves to the facts is the phrase “on its own.” Where you sent it, to whom, and what you said when you did are the details that decide it, and they are the first things we ask about.
Fla. Stat. § 836.14
Stolen images, and images sold for money
A second statute, “Theft or unauthorized promotion of a sexually explicit image,” covers the case where the image was taken from your phone or account, or where someone is making money from it. It was amended in the 2026 session and reads as follows.
Stolen to share
Stealing a sexually explicit image “with the intent to promote such image” is a third-degree felony.
Holding it to sell
Willfully possessing a stolen image with intent to promote it for financial gain, knowing or having reason to know it was stolen, is a third-degree felony.
Selling it
Willfully promoting a sexually explicit image “for the purpose of pecuniary or any other financial gain” without the identifiable person’s consent, through print, a website, or other electronic means, is a second-degree felony.
Each act counts, and you can sue
“Every act, thing, or transaction prohibited by this section constitutes a separate offense.” An aggrieved person may sue for injunctive relief, “$10,000 or actual damages … whichever is greater,” and reasonable attorney fees and costs.
What the text does not answer
Section 836.14 borrows its definitions of “identifiable person” and “promote” from section 836.13, and its civil subsection lists no punitive damages, unlike 784.049. It also exempts images “involving voluntary exposure in a public or commercial setting,” and the statute does not define that phrase. Whether your images fall inside it is a factual question, and it is one to settle before anyone is sued.
Fla. Stat. § 836.13
AI fakes and altered images
Florida’s third statute reaches an “altered sexual depiction”: any visual depiction that, “as a result of any type of digital, electronic, mechanical, or other modification, alteration, or adaptation, depicts a realistic version of an identifiable person” in the sexual ways the section lists. Willfully generating one without consent, soliciting one, or maliciously promoting one are each third-degree felonies, and the section carries its own civil action against the people who generate or promote them. It also gives covered platforms 48 hours to remove a reported depiction.
The deepfakes page quotes the section.
Common law, not statute
Recorded without your knowledge
None of the three statutes above covers a recording that was never shared. Florida’s digital voyeurism statute, section 810.145, makes secret recording a crime, but it contains no civil cause of action.
The claim that exists is a common-law one. Florida courts recognize a civil claim for “physically or electronically intruding into one’s private quarters,” and one appellate court has held that the claim does not depend on the recording ever being shared. No appellate court has yet applied it to a bedroom recording. That gap is exactly why the facts of your case matter.
What you can sue for, statute by statute
Each civil subsection, as written.
- 784.049(7), someone published or shared the images: injunction; $10,000 or actual damages, whichever is greater; punitive damages; attorney fees and costs.
- 836.14(6), the images were stolen or sold: injunction; $10,000 or actual damages, whichever is greater; attorney fees and costs.
- 836.13(7), the images were generated or altered: injunction; $10,000 or actual damages, whichever is greater; attorney fees and costs; against the people who generated or promoted 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. None of these sections states a filing deadline on its face; the deadline comes from general limitations law and can start earlier than you would assume. The date the images first appeared, and the date of every repost you know about, are the first facts we need.
Which statutes fit, who can be named under each, 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
Answers come from the 2026 Florida Statutes. Where the text does not answer, we say so.
A first offense under section 784.049 is a first-degree misdemeanor. It becomes a third-degree felony with a prior conviction, or when it is done for financial gain, and a second-degree felony for a repeat financial-gain violation. Stealing an image to share it, or selling one without consent, are felonies under section 836.14 from the first offense.
Section 784.049, Florida Statutes, titled “Sexual cyberharassment.” It was last amended by chapter 2025-84, effective October 1, 2025. Related statutes are 836.13 (altered and AI-generated depictions) and 836.14 (theft or unauthorized promotion of a sexually explicit image).
Not under these statutes. Each one exempts a provider of an interactive computer service, information service, or communications service that only transmits, stores, or caches other people’s content. The claims run against the person who published, stole, sold, or generated the images. Platforms have separate removal duties, covered on the what-to-do-tonight page.
Both 784.049 and 836.14 say a violation “is committed within this state if any conduct that is an element of the offense, or any harm to the depicted person resulting from the offense, occurs within this state.” Harm to a Florida resident is enough for the offense to be a Florida offense. Whether a Florida court can reach an out-of-state defendant in a civil case is a separate question, and it depends on the facts.
The statutes do not say. None of the three sections states a limitations period; the deadline comes from Florida’s general limitations law, and when it starts can turn on when the images were first published rather than when you found them. Bring every date you have, and do not assume you have years.
Federal law adds a fourth claim
15 U.S.C. 6851 gives a separate federal claim with $150,000 in liquidated damages and the option to sue under a pseudonym.