In an exclusive interview with The Floridian, former Florida Sen. Democratic Leader Lauren Book discussed strengthening digital tools to protect children from online predators and scammers amid the growing threat of Artificial Intelligence (AI), if elected to Senate District 30.
"I mean, it's absolutely something I worked on when I was there. Certainly, a federal issue. Obviously, very complicated. I think you can work with our federal partners," Book said.
While the Florida Senate passed an AI Bill of Rights bill during the 2026 legislative session, the measure was not approved by the House, despite Republicans having supermajorities in both chambers. The House, led by Speaker Daniel "Danny" Perez (R-Miami), declined to take up the bill, calling it a federal issue.
Book, who served as Leader from 2021-2024, could bring a new viewpoint on the issue if elected. Book's experience included eight years in the Legislature representing part of Broward County in South Florida.
"The governor can do a lot. The White House has done a lot. The First Lady has done a lot in terms of taking it down. But I do think that we could do more as it relates to keeping children safe," Book said, specifically pointing safeguarding teens from scammers.
Book noted scammers have been specifically targeting young boys demanding money.
"There's a new scam that these individuals are going after, particularly young boys 10-11, 12-13, 14-15. They're targeting them. They're going after them. This young boy in particular sent an image. The person said, 'You need to send me $1,000 or I'm going to send it to your mom, send it to your dad, send it to your sister.'"
The "sextortion scam" can lead to teen suicide.
"These things are happening every single day. We're not doing the things that we need to be doing. We're not educating children the ways that we need to be educating them, and we're not giving law enforcement the resources that they need," Book said. "It is like we're sending them into the boxing rink with an MMA fighter, tying their hands and their feet up, and not doing the things that they need to do. It's dangerous. It's wrong."
SD 30 covers Broward and Palm Beach Counties in Florida. Book is looking to replace Sen. Tina Polsky (D-Boca Raton) in the seat following the November election.
Lauren Book knows a lot about scams because she spent much of her time in the Senate funneling taxpayer money to her dubious charity, when she isn’t accepting money from the scummiest business in America, like GEO Group.
Lauren and her DUI daddy need to be deported.
She’s a massive fraud with a hidden agenda. She and her damaged lobbyist father are pure evil.
She doesn’t seem to care about the estimated 200,000 children forced to register as “sex offenders”, as young as 8 and 9 years old. The public has no clue what the registry is really about. It’s entirely about $$$$$$. It’s huge business as research has shown since our autistic son was forced to register for deleted photos he had nothing to do with creating or distributing.
* The figure of approximately 200,000 people who were placed on sex offender registries for conduct that occurred before age 18 comes from the Center on Youth Registration Reform and has been cited by other organizations, including an article in Teen Vogue.
* A Human Rights Watch report documents that some states have placed children as young as 8 on sex offender registries, and notes that children as young as 9 have been registered in states such as Michigan.
* The DOJ’s own publications acknowledge that federal law can require registration of certain juveniles, but only under limited circumstances. For example, SORNA generally applies to juveniles who were 14 or older at the time of certain very serious offenses comparable to aggravated sexual abuse.
* It appears the 200,000 figure first originated with the Center on Youth Registration Reform (CYRR), a project of Impact Justice led by attorney Nicole Pittman, and was then repeated in later reports and articles.
Here is the trail:
1. Human Rights Watch – “Raised on the Registry: The Irreparable Harm of Placing Children on Sex Offender Registries in the U.S.” (May 2013)
* Author: Nicole Pittman.
* This landmark report documents children as young as 8 years old being placed on registries in some states.
2. Center on Youth Registration Reform (Impact Justice)
* Sometime between 2016 and 2017, CYRR began publishing the estimate that approximately 200,000 individuals are on sex offender registries for offenses committed before age 18.
* Later articles explicitly attribute the figure to CYRR’s estimates.
3. Juvenile Law Center – “Labeled for Life” (2020)
* This report states:
“Today, over 200,000 individuals are on sex offender registries for offenses committed when they were children.”
* It also notes that in some states there is no minimum registration age, so children as young as eight can be registered.
4. Congressional recognition
* The House Judiciary Committee’s report on the Adam Walsh Reauthorization Act (H. Rept. 115-142) states:
“Hundreds of thousands of children from juvenile courts, some as young as eight years old, have been placed on sex-offense registries…”
* The committee cites Human Rights Watch and Nicole Pittman/Center on Youth Registration Reform as its sources.
https://www.congress.gov/committee-report/115th-congress/house-report/142/1
https://www.hrw.org/report/2013/05/01/raised-registry/irreparable-harm-placing-children-sex-offender-registries-us
“The object of all despotism is revenue.”
-Thomas Paine
“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As the result of the War, corporations have been enthroned. An era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people…until wealth is aggregated in a few hands…and the Republic is destroyed.”
-Abraham Lincoln, 1864
“Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people’s masters.”Â
–Grover Cleveland, 1864
Law Professor Catherine Carpenter
Sex Offense Registries ARE UNconstitutional!
8 and 9 year old CHILDREN forced to register as “sex offenders” is UNconstitutional AND IMMORAL.
My autistic son and all the other thousands of autistic people forced to register is absolutely ignorant and evil.
https://youtu.be/WbSkrKkL2O8?si=rfIK3YIT_IqLYYPR
https://youtu.be/NzAJ09VP4M4?si=BTQQZNMl3KlEC0ci
https://youtu.be/8p7On0nvtPI?si=PBr_Kf7-0dRiK3JI
https://youtu.be/9qyA9TU8nE8?si=rlecfGTJDRN1IxSV
https://youtu.be/E-bpw5sCFcY?si=XT09Q4ojEKCzlI07
“Of course, violent, hands-on sex offenses are egregious and should be addressed appropriately, and there is no greater cause than that of safeguarding our children, but the “moral panic” has taken our laws and punitive measures far beyond this category of criminality – it has destroyed the lives of many non-violent individuals whose “thought crime” was comprised of little more than a preoccupation or fantasy.”
https://www.criminallegalnews.org/news/2021/jan/15/sex-panic-war-sex-offenders-public-enemy-number-one/
German Court Grants Protection to Florida SexOffender Registrant on #HumanRights Grounds…
“His situation in the U.S. is no different than that of jews in Germany in the 1930s”…
https://floridaactioncommittee.org/german-court-grants-protection-to-florida-sex-offender-registrant-on-human-rights-grounds/
My comment stating the true facts was deleted by the moderator who appears to be owned by the lobbyist in the area. I reckon that’s why there are no comments. The truth isn’t allowed in the devils’ propaganda media machine. It truly is pitiful and pathetic.
Criminals run the government and the media.
Put them ALL on a registry and punish them for life for misleading the public!!!
Scumbags! Pushing the agenda of amoral psychotic dirtbags and censoring the TRUTH. Portraying the real criminals as heroes and their victims as the criminals.
Karma is coming!!! For ALL of you. I will it so. In fact, it’s already happening. Ask Matt Gaetz what happened to him after his “scorched earth” declaration.
May Karma get them all and ruin their lives.
So be it.
It is so.
Keep up the good work Lauren. Protecting our children is Job #1.
Floridiot Press is censoring any and all criticism of Lauren Book. Gee, I wonder why?