What is a traveling to meet a minor charge?

The offense generally requires two components: soliciting or luring a person believed to be a minor, using a computer or electronic device, and then traveling — or attempting to travel — for the purpose of meeting them.

Two features make these cases distinctive.

There is often no actual minor. These charges frequently arise from law enforcement operations in which an officer poses as a minor. Florida's statute is written so that belief regarding age is what matters, which means the absence of a real child is generally not a defense.

Travel is an element. What constitutes travel, and whether an attempt occurred, is contestable — and in some cases the traveling count is attacked separately from the solicitation count, since they carry different exposure.

These are serious felonies with substantial prison exposure and registration consequences.

The evidence is almost entirely electronic: chat logs, device forensics, and location data. How that evidence was obtained, whether the logs are complete, and who was actually operating a device are all real questions.