In Brief
Since October 1, 2026, Florida has a new third-degree felony, section 800.035: intentionally exposing your sexual organs in a lewd way, or performing a sexual act with no contact, while watching a child under 16 for your own sexual gratification, when the child could see you. The child doesn’t have to notice anything. That’s the point of the law, because a 1992 Florida Supreme Court decision required proof that the child saw or sensed the act. Breastfeeding and nudity in a place set apart for it are exempt, and the House’s final bill analysis says a conviction doesn’t require sex offender registration.
Florida already punished indecent exposure in public and lewd conduct in front of a child. On October 1, 2026, House Bill 1525, chapter 2026-159, Laws of Florida, added a third crime between them. It’s aimed at a person who watches a child for sexual reasons and exposes himself or herself while doing it, and it’s written so the case doesn’t depend on what the child saw.
The same law repealed one of the oldest statutes in the chapter, the misdemeanor of an “unnatural and lascivious act.”
On This Page
What the New Law Says
Section 800.035(1) says a person commits the offense “if that person, while observing a child under 16 years of age for the purpose of his or her own sexual arousal or gratification: (a) Intentionally exposes his or her sexual organs in a lewd or lascivious manner; or (b) Intentionally performs any sexual act that does not involve actual physical or sexual contact with the child, including, but not limited to, sadomasochistic abuse, sexual bestiality, masturbation, or the simulation of any act involving sexual activity.”
It’s a third-degree felony, which carries up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. Every piece of that sentence is an element the State has to prove: that the person was watching a child, that the child was under 16, that the watching was for the person’s own sexual arousal or gratification, and that the exposure or act was intentional.
The Child Doesn’t Have to See It
The law turns on one defined word. Subsection (2) says “observing” means “intentionally viewing another person under circumstances in which the offender is reasonably capable of being seen by the person being viewed.” So the question is whether the child could have seen the person, not whether the child did.
Subsection (4) says it outright: “It is not a defense under this section that the person being observed was not aware of any specific conduct on the part of the offender or did not see the offender’s sexual organs.”
That sentence answers a 34-year-old case. In State v. Werner, 609 So. 2d 585 (Fla. 1992), a father took his 13-month-old daughter into a bathroom and masturbated. He was charged under the old version of the lewd conduct statute, which required the act to happen “in the presence of” a child. The Florida Supreme Court held that “presence” means more than being in the room: “while the child need not be able to articulate or even comprehend what the offender is doing, the child must see or sense that a lewd or lascivious act is taking place for a violation to occur.” Id. at 587. The House’s final analysis of HB 1525 walks through Werner before describing the new crime. Section 800.035 doesn’t use the word “presence” at all, and subsection (4) makes the child’s awareness irrelevant.
How It Fits With the Older Laws
Two existing statutes sit on either side of the new one.
Section 800.03 covers exposing your sexual organs in public, or on someone else’s private property or close enough to be seen from it, “in a vulgar or indecent manner,” or being naked in public that way. A first offense is a first-degree misdemeanor. A second or later offense is a third-degree felony. No child has to be involved.
Section 800.04(7) covers lewd or lascivious exhibition: intentionally masturbating, exposing the genitals in a lewd or lascivious manner, or committing a non-contact sexual act “in the presence of a victim who is less than 16 years of age.” For an offender 18 or older it’s a second-degree felony, punishable by up to 15 years. Because of Werner, that “presence” still means the child saw or sensed the act.
Section 800.035 fills the gap where the State can’t prove the child noticed. It carries a lower penalty than 800.04(7), and it adds an element 800.04(7) doesn’t have: the purpose of the person’s own sexual arousal or gratification.
Registration and the Repealed Misdemeanor
The bill doesn’t add section 800.035 to the list of offenses that require registration as a sexual offender, and the House’s final bill analysis says so directly: “A conviction for a violation of indecent exposure of sexual organs while observing a child does not require a person to register as a sexual offender.” A conviction under section 800.04, by contrast, does carry registration.
Subsection (5) writes in two exceptions. A person doesn’t commit the offense if he or she is “a mother who is breastfeeding her baby” or “an individual who is merely nude in a place provided or set apart for that purpose.”
The bill also repealed section 800.02, which made “any unnatural and lascivious act with another person” a second-degree misdemeanor. Florida courts had treated it as a lesser included offense of the lewd or lascivious crimes in section 800.04, and it no longer exists for conduct on or after October 1, 2026.
Where the Defense Is
Most of the fight will be over purpose and sightlines.
Purpose first. The State has to prove the person was watching the child “for the purpose of his or her own sexual arousal or gratification.” A person who was exposed for another reason, like changing clothes or using a bathroom with a door that didn’t latch, isn’t inside the statute, even if a child was nearby. Intent is proven with circumstances, so the details of where the person was, what he or she was doing before and after, and what was said all matter.
Then sightlines. “Reasonably capable of being seen” is a physical fact about distance, angles, lighting, windows, and what stood in between. It can be measured and photographed, and it should be, early, before a room is rearranged or a season changes the light. A defense investigator standing where the child stood answers a question no witness’s memory can.
The child’s age has to be proven, and so does identity. In a case built on a neighbor’s or a parent’s account of what they saw through a window, the reliability of that identification is often the whole case. The firm’s pages on lewd and lascivious charges and sex crimes defense cover the related offenses, and every Florida criminal law that took effect October 1, 2026 covers the rest of this year’s changes.
Common Questions
Is indecent exposure a felony in Florida?
It depends on the statute. Exposure in public under section 800.03 is a first-degree misdemeanor for a first offense and a third-degree felony for a second. Since October 1, 2026, exposure while observing a child under 16 for sexual gratification is a third-degree felony under section 800.035, and lewd exhibition in the presence of a child under 16 is a second-degree felony for an adult under section 800.04(7).
Does the child have to see the exposure under Florida’s new law?
No. Section 800.035(4) says it isn’t a defense that the child “was not aware of any specific conduct” or “did not see the offender’s sexual organs.” The State has to prove the person was reasonably capable of being seen by the child, not that the child actually saw anything.
Do you have to register as a sex offender for section 800.035?
The House’s final bill analysis says a conviction under section 800.035 does not require registration as a sexual offender, and the bill didn’t add the offense to the registration statutes. A conviction under section 800.04, Florida’s lewd or lascivious statute, does carry registration.
What is section 800.02 in Florida?
It was the misdemeanor of committing “any unnatural and lascivious act with another person.” House Bill 1525 repealed it effective October 1, 2026.
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Further Reading
- CS/CS/HB 1525 (2026), Lewd or Lascivious Acts, Florida Senate bill page with the enrolled text and the House final bill analysis
- Chapter 2026-159, Laws of Florida, the law as signed June 16, 2026
- State v. Werner, 609 So. 2d 585 (Fla. 1992), CourtListener
- Fla. Stat. 800.03, exposure of sexual organs, Online Sunshine
- Fla. Stat. 800.04, lewd or lascivious offenses on or in the presence of persons under 16, Online Sunshine
WRITTEN AND REVIEWED BY
Rory Safir, ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientist
He is the author of The Florida DUI Trial Manual, an NHTSA-qualified instructor in the standardized field sobriety exercises, faculty of the National College for DUI Defense, and a former Assistant Public Defender in the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit.
This post is general information about Florida law, not legal advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. The law discussed is CS/CS/House Bill 1525 (2026), chapter 2026-159, Laws of Florida, creating section 800.035 and repealing section 800.02, Florida Statutes, effective October 1, 2026, read in the enrolled bill text and the House of Representatives final bill analysis dated June 17, 2026, together with sections 800.03, 800.04 and 943.0435, Florida Statutes, and State v. Werner, 609 So. 2d 585 (Fla. 1992), as of October 6, 2026.
