Last week a middle school teacher in Lee County was arrested for possessing child and animal abuse electronic material. A man in Sarasota and another in Zephyrhills recently were arrested on similar charges.

Those incidents pushed the number of arrests for such crimes over the 2,000 mark since Attorney General James Uthmeier took office in February 2025. He announced this at a press conference at the Lee County Sheriff's headquarters in Fort Myers Thursday.

"We are seeking the longest terms of sentence that we can under Florida law for these cases," Uthmeier said. "There have been several judges in this area in particular that haven't taken child pornography cases seriously. They have not pushed for long sentences. They've given out slaps on the wrist, viewing it as a crime that didn't hurt anybody. That is wrong. That is wrong."

Uthmeier said he hates that the state has these all time records for arrests and prosecutions.

"I'm glad we're getting them. We're going to be adding our resources, using more technology, more people. We've got a whole unit focused more so on social media applications. That's a massive problem."

Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno, Special Agent Eli Lawson and Uthmeier all urged parents to pay close attention and talk to their children about online safety.

"Parents at home have heard me saying it. If they haven't, please wake up. A lot of these predators are using Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, Roblox, Discord, a gaming app I hadn't even heard of. They're using these platforms to communicate with your kids."

For help on how to discuss these issues, go to secureflorida.org.

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