2024 Florida Statutes
< Back to Statute SearchTitle XLVI CRIMES
Chapter 847
OBSCENITY
SECTION 001Definitions.
847.001 Definitions.—As used in this chapter, the term:
(1) “Adult” means a person 18 years of age or older.
(2) “Adult entertainment establishment” means the following terms as defined:
(a) “Adult bookstore” means any corporation, partnership, or business of any kind which restricts or purports to restrict admission only to adults, which has as part of its stock books, magazines, other periodicals, videos, discs, or other graphic media and which offers, sells, provides, or rents for a fee any sexually oriented material.
(b) “Adult theater” means an enclosed building or an enclosed space within a building used for presenting either films, live plays, dances, or other performances that are distinguished or characterized by an emphasis on matter depicting, describing, or relating to specific sexual activities for observation by patrons, and which restricts or purports to restrict admission only to adults, or any business that features a person who engages in specific sexual activities for observation by a patron, and which restricts or purports to restrict admission to only adults.
(c) “Special Cabaret” means any business that features persons who engage in specific sexual activities for observation by patrons, and which restricts or purports to restrict admission only to adults.
(d) “Unlicensed massage establishment” means any business or enterprise that offers, sells, or provides, or that holds itself out as offering, selling, or providing, massages that include bathing, physical massage, rubbing, kneading, anointing, stroking, manipulating, or other tactile stimulation of the human body by either male or female employees or attendants, by hand or by any electrical or mechanical device, on or off the premises. The term “unlicensed massage establishment” does not include an establishment licensed under s. 480.043 which routinely provides medical services by state-licensed health care practitioners and massage therapists licensed under s. 480.041.
(3) “Child pornography” means:
(a) Any image depicting a minor engaged in sexual conduct; or
(b) Any image that has been created, altered, adapted, or modified by electronic, mechanical, or other means, to portray an identifiable minor engaged in sexual conduct.
(4) “Computer” means an electronic, magnetic, optical, electrochemical, or other high-speed data processing device performing logical, arithmetic, or storage functions and includes any data storage facility or communications facility directly related to or operating in conjunction with such device. The term also includes: any online service, Internet service, or local bulletin board; any electronic storage device, including a floppy disk or other magnetic storage device; or any compact disc that has read-only memory and the capacity to store audio, video, or written materials.
(5) “Deviate sexual intercourse” means sexual conduct between persons not married to each other consisting of contact between the penis and the anus, the mouth and the penis, or the mouth and the vulva.
(6) “Female genitals” includes the labia minora, labia majora, clitoris, vulva, hymen, and vagina.
(7) “Harmful to minors” means any reproduction, imitation, characterization, description, exhibition, presentation, or representation, of whatever kind or form, depicting nudity, sexual conduct, or sexual excitement when it:
(a) Predominantly appeals to a prurient, shameful, or morbid interest;
(b) Is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable material or conduct for minors; and
(c) Taken as a whole, is without serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.
A mother’s breastfeeding of her baby is not under any circumstance “harmful to minors.”
(8) “Identifiable minor” means a person:
(a) Who was a minor at the time the image was created, altered, adapted, or modified, or whose image as a minor was used in the creating, altering, adapting, or modifying of the image; and
(b) Who is recognizable as an actual person by the person’s face, likeness, or other distinguishing characteristic, such as a unique birthmark, or other recognizable feature.
The term may not be construed to require proof of the actual identity of the identifiable minor.
(9) “Masochism” means sexual gratification achieved by a person through, or the association of sexual activity with, submission or subjection to physical pain, suffering, humiliation, torture, or death.
(10) “Minor” or “child” means any person, whose identity is known or unknown, younger than 18 years of age.
(11) “Nudity” means the showing of the human male or female genitals, pubic area, or buttocks with less than a fully opaque covering; or the showing of the female breast with less than a fully opaque covering of any portion thereof below the top of the nipple; or the depiction of covered male genitals in a discernibly turgid state. A mother’s breastfeeding of her baby does not under any circumstance constitute “nudity,” irrespective of whether or not the nipple is covered during or incidental to feeding.
(12) “Obscene” means the status of material which:
(a) The average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest;
(b) Depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct as specifically defined herein; and
(c) Taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
A mother’s breastfeeding of her baby is not under any circumstance “obscene.”
(13) “Person” includes individuals, children, firms, associations, joint ventures, partnerships, estates, trusts, business trusts, syndicates, fiduciaries, corporations, and all other groups or combinations.
(14) “Promote” means to procure, manufacture, issue, sell, give, provide, lend, mail, deliver, transfer, transmit, transmute, publish, distribute, circulate, disseminate, present, exhibit, send, post, share, or advertise or to offer or agree to do the same.
(15) “Sadism” means sexual gratification achieved through, or the association of sexual activity with, the infliction of physical pain, suffering, humiliation, torture, or death upon another person or an animal.
(16) “Sadomasochistic abuse” means flagellation or torture by or upon a person or animal, or the condition of being fettered, bound, or otherwise physically restrained, for the purpose of deriving sexual satisfaction, or satisfaction brought about as a result of sadistic violence, from inflicting harm on another or receiving such harm oneself.
(17) “Sexual battery” means oral, anal, or female genital penetration by, or union with, the sexual organ of another or the anal or female genital penetration of another by any other object; however, “sexual battery” does not include an act done for a bona fide medical purpose.
(18) “Sexual bestiality” means any sexual act, actual or simulated, between a person and an animal involving the sex organ of the one and the mouth, anus, or female genitals of the other.
(19) “Sexual conduct” means actual or simulated sexual intercourse, deviate sexual intercourse, sexual bestiality, masturbation, or sadomasochistic abuse; actual or simulated lewd exhibition of the genitals; actual physical contact with a person’s clothed or unclothed genitals, pubic area, buttocks, or, if such person is a female, breast with the intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of either party; or any act or conduct which constitutes sexual battery or simulates that sexual battery is being or will be committed. A mother’s breastfeeding of her baby does not under any circumstance constitute “sexual conduct.”
(20) “Sexual excitement” means the condition of the human male or female genitals when in a state of sexual stimulation or arousal.
(21) “Sexually oriented material” means any book, article, magazine, publication, or written matter of any kind or any drawing, etching, painting, photograph, motion picture film, or sound recording that depicts sexual activity, actual or simulated, involving human beings or human beings and animals, that exhibits uncovered human genitals or the pubic region in a lewd or lascivious manner, or that exhibits human male genitals in a discernibly turgid state, even if completely and opaquely covered.
(22) “Simulated” means the explicit depiction of conduct described in subsection (19) which creates the appearance of such conduct and which exhibits any uncovered portion of the breasts, genitals, or buttocks.
(23) “Specific sexual activities” includes the following sexual activities and the exhibition of the following anatomical areas:
(a) Human genitals in the state of sexual stimulation or arousal.
(b) Acts of human masturbation, sexual intercourse, sodomy, cunnilingus, fellatio, or any excretory function, or representation thereof.
(c) The fondling or erotic touching of human genitals, the pubic region, the buttocks, or the female breasts.
(d) Less than completely and opaquely covered:
1. Human genitals or the pubic region.
2. Buttocks.
3. Female breasts below the top of the areola.
4. Human male genitals in a discernibly turgid state, even if completely and opaquely covered.
History.—s. 1, ch. 86-238; s. 4, ch. 88-283; s. 6, ch. 93-4; s. 70, ch. 96-388; s. 2, ch. 2001-54; s. 1, ch. 2001-177; s. 154, ch. 2007-5; s. 1, ch. 2008-120; s. 11, ch. 2019-152; s. 10, ch. 2022-165; s. 7, ch. 2022-212.