The Sex Offender Registry Fails Again: Sextortion Crimes Continue to Rise Across Tampa Bay Area

ABC Action News for Tampa Bay reports that sextortion crimes targeting children are up by 67% in the past year. And similar crimes against adults are up by 47%.

We note that this increase took place during a time when Florida had in place, the most robust, most draconian sex offender registration scheme it has ever had, viewed by some as the strictest such scheme in the country.

For lawmakers who create sex offender registries, and agencies and contractors that enforce them, the stated intention is prevention of sexual offenses.  And sextortion— extorting someone for a nude picture— is clearly a sexual offense.  We wonder how the registry’s proponents would account for the apparent discrepancy between record-high registration enforcement and record-high sextortion.

Who is committing these new crimes?  The news outlet interviewed Detective Henry Snowden of the St. Petersburg Police Department, who identified the sextortion surge, discussed how sextortionists operate, and sextortionists’ typical profile. Wisely, not once did Det. Snowden suggest that any of these criminals could be found on the sex offender registry.  When asked about sextortion prevention, Det. Snowden mentioned multiple measures, but he did not mention registry enforcement.

Where are these new crimes taking place?  The news outlet reported these crimes to have taken place on Snapchat, dating apps, and gaming platforms. This surprised us, for two reasons. First, Florida law requires all persons that the state designates as sexual offenders, to register their Snapchat identities, dating app usernames, and (when used for direct user to user social communication) even gaming platform usernames, to local authorities, who forward this information to the FDLE. Second, many such platforms already have a policy of disabling any accounts belonging to registered sex offenders. With such apparently robust and overlapping policies in place, we question how it is that local authorities, state authorities, and multiple social apps, all combined, still failed to prevent a 67% increase in sextortion of children.

So how can we protect our children from sextortion?  ABC Action News asked a therapist this question. And the therapist outlined multiple protective measures. But what the therapist did not identify as a protective measure, was checking the registry. This was not even mentioned, despite the fact that the registry is public and instantly available to all community members with an internet connection.

The sex offender registry does nothing to prevent sextortion.  It is in no way a tool for prevention, and no amount of additional registry legislation or enforcement will be able to change that.