Sen. Lauren Book's bill would strengthen Florida’s revenge porn law
Tallahassee, Fla. - State Sen. Lauren Book often told the story of how she was sexually abused by her maternal grandmother for six years when she was a child. She channeled the pain throughout her life to help other abuse survivors.
Now after years of working hard to heal himself and restore his life—after running a nonprofit to help victims, marry, have children, and win a Senate seat—the book is back again. This time someone has tried to get her out by threatening to reveal the nude photos that were stolen from her.
What's worse: During the investigation, he learned that the images had been bought and traded online since 2000.
"I hate that this happened to me," Book told the Associated Press in an interview. "I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. But I'll take it, because I know I can do something about it." "
The book is taking action as only a legislator can do. While the pain returns, so does her fighting spirit, and she seeks a new law to prevent others from suffering.
The first committee hearing of the bill, sponsored by Book, a Democrat, will take place on Tuesday. It would strengthen Florida's revenge porn law by making it a crime to steal sexually explicit images from someone's phone or other digital devices. This would convert the spread or create sexually explicit images, known as deepfakes, a felony.
Book vented his anger in a phone interview with the AP on Monday night as he described international trade and the sale of stolen images without people's knowledge. Sometimes she cursed loudly, and sometimes she shed tears. She called it a sick, distorted subculture that overpays for images of celebrities and elected officials, but which also preys on women who are not well known.
"Frankly, if it wasn't for my kids, I would have ended my life," she said. "It brought all that stuff. All this that you think you've got under your belt, that you fixed it and you replaced it and then all of a sudden here it is in front of your face."
And the conversations people had on the website made the horrors even worse.
"They were reading about who I was and talking about how I was a rape survivor, so let's try to get some rape videos. Can we get some of her raped, killed, tortured? Can we make something out of it? We find it? How can we get it?" The book said.
The book still does not know how the pictures were stolen. But she said investigators told her that the teen had tried to extort photos from her that were sent through virtual private networks in Sweden and Russia.
As the 17-year-old daughter of an influential lobbyist, she found the courage to go to Tallahassee for anorexia, sleepless nights and cries, and convince lawmakers and the then government. Jeb Bush passed a law requiring HIV testing for rape suspects.
She is now a 37-year-old senator, and feels blessed to be in a position to fight back, with the resources to hire an attorney to remove the images from websites. Many others do not.