The House passed a Florida Representative’s bill to criminalize sextortion.
The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed H.R. 6719, the Combating Online Predators Act, bipartisan legislation introduced by Republican Congresswoman Laurel Lee to close a dangerous loophole in federal law and strengthen protections for children targeted by online sextortion.
“Predators are exploiting gaps in our laws to terrorize children online,” Rep. Laurel Lee said during floor debate. “By passing the Combating Online Predators Act, Congress is making clear that these threats will be prosecuted with the seriousness they deserve.”
The bill explicitly criminalizes intentional threats to distribute child sexual abuse material (CSAM), a coercive tactic increasingly used by online predators to exploit and silence children. Under current law, sextortion has fallen outside existing CSAM statutes, forcing prosecutors to rely on patchwork charging theories that fail to reflect the gravity of these crimes.
The Republican Congresswoman represents eastern Hillsborough County and parts of Pasco County and Polk County in Central Florida.
Rep. Lee delivered her floor speech in support of the legislation on January 12, 2025 during National Human Trafficking Prevention Month, underscoring the urgent need for Congress to act as reports of sextortion continue to surge nationwide.
In recent years, reported sextortion cases in the United States rose sharply, from 13,842 in the first half of 2024 to 23,593 during the same period in 2025. Children are particularly vulnerable, with boys ages 14 to 17 most often targeted. In tragic cases, sextortion has led young victims to take their own lives.
During her remarks, Rep. Lee honored the lives of children lost to sextortion, including Gavin Guffey of South Carolina and Bryce Tate of West Virginia, and shared the story of a Florida mother whose son committed suicide after being targeted online.
The Combating Online Predators Act builds on Rep. Lee’s prior work to combat online exploitation, including the REPORT Act, which strengthened reporting requirements for online service providers and was signed into law in the previous Congress.
With House passage secured, Rep. Lee emphasized that protecting children from online exploitation must remain a bipartisan priority and that predators must be held fully accountable under federal law. The bill to criminalize sextortion now awaits consideration in the Senate.
The House Judiciary Committee also unanimously passed the bipartisan Renewed Hope Act, legislation led by Florida Congresswoman Laurel Lee to strengthen federal efforts to identify child victims of online sexual exploitation. The bill, co-led by Democratic Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, now advances to the full House for consideration.
“Yesterday’s bipartisan vote in the Judiciary Committee moves us one step closer to delivering real help to children who have been exploited and remain unidentified,”said Congresswoman Laurel Lee. “The Renewed Hope Act ensures law enforcement has the specialized personnel needed to find victims, rescue them, and hold predators accountable.”
“Children must be protected from the staggering rise in digital predators who seek to exploit them. That means expanding efforts to identify and support these child victims of online abuse,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a South Florida Democrat. “Mounting evidence points to a disturbing escalation of extreme, violent online content. I’m proud to join my colleagues to introduce this bipartisan legislation to increase capacity to identify victims of child sexual exploitation, and invest in front-line, dedicated professionals who can find predators and save innocent lives.”
“For too long, hundreds of thousands of girls and boys have endured horrific abuse — often at the hands of adults who are supposed to protect them,” said Tim Tebow. “Children in our nation are right now living in the darkest of evils, crying out for help. Their pain must stir us to act. This is why we’re calling on Congress to pass legislation to strengthen our nation’s response to identifying and rescuing these boys and girls. Because even with law enforcement and organizations working around the clock to rescue these children, it’s just not enough. I’m deeply grateful to our leaders for shining a light on this bipartisan issue so that we can build a stronger rescue team of analysts, investigators, and law enforcement as we unite to find and safeguard every child in our nation suffering this great evil.”
The Renewed Hope Act strengthens the federal government’s ability to identify children depicted in child sexual abuse material by expanding the hiring and retention of specialized victim identification personnel within Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). The legislation reflects recommendations from victim identification experts and law enforcement partners working to locate and rescue children trapped in ongoing exploitation.
The legislation is supported by the Tim Tebow Foundation, which has long partnered with law enforcement and victim identification organizations to combat child sexual exploitation and advocate for stronger efforts to identify and rescue victims.