A 41-year-old Miami man was arrested Thursday after Broward County deputies say he matched with a person on the dating app Bumble whom he believed to be a 15-year-old girl, then arranged to meet her for sex. The case adds to a growing list of online solicitation arrests moving through Broward County courts this year.
According to WPLG Local 10, the Broward Sheriff's Office reported the man's arrest and detailed the alleged communications that led to it. Investigators say he arranged to meet the person for sex after matching with them on Bumble, believing the whole time that he was talking to a 15-year-old girl. The report does not specify whether the person on the other end of the chat was an undercover detective, but Florida law makes that distinction legally irrelevant to the charges.
Under Florida Statute 847.0135, prosecutors do not need to prove an actual minor was involved in a case, only that the suspect reasonably believed, based on electronic communications, that he was talking to someone under 18, according to the Brancato Law Firm. That legal framework is why undercover tactics such as detectives posing as minors in chats are standard practice in Internet Crimes Against Children investigations and consistently hold up in court.
What Florida Law Says About Traveling to Meet a Minor
Traveling or attempting to travel to meet a minor for unlawful sexual conduct after using an electronic device to solicit them is a second-degree felony in Florida, carrying up to 15 years in prison and a $10,000 fine, per Hanlon Law. A conviction also carries a minimum mandatory prison sentence of 21 months, according to the same legal guidance.
The alleged encounter began on Bumble, a dating app whose terms of service restrict access to users who are at least 18 years old and enforce what the company describes as a zero-tolerance policy against child sexual exploitation and underage accounts. Bumble also mandates photo verification for all U.S. users, requiring a real-time selfie matched against profile images, with automated algorithms and human moderators flagging profiles suspected of misrepresenting age or being run by minors, according to Bumble Support.
Part of a Wider Pattern in Broward County
The Broward Sheriff's Office is a member agency of the South Florida Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, a federally funded initiative that coordinates resources among local, state, and federal police to target technology-facilitated child exploitation. That structure has produced a steady stream of arrests across the county this year. In July, BSO carried out a Dania Beach hotel sting that led to seven arrests and the rescue of 10 victims, with detectives posing as minors and family members across multiple apps.
That same month, a 30-year-old Hollywood man was arrested and held in Broward County jail on federal charges after allegedly using Discord to entice a 14-year-old girl, an investigation that began after the teenager reported the messages to a school counselor. In March, a Pembroke Pines teenager was arrested in a separate BSO child-solicitation case tied to Roblox and Robux transactions. And in April 2024, a former Miramar police officer pleaded guilty to aggravated child abuse after a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl who had lied on Tinder about her age, a case Hoodline covered in reporting on how South Florida courts handle age-misrepresentation on dating apps.
State-Level Push Against Online Predators
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement hosted its largest Internet Crimes Against Children Conference in Orlando in December 2025, drawing 1,200 law enforcement personnel from more than 300 agencies to sharpen digital forensic techniques and prosecutorial strategies, according to FDLE. The scale of that gathering reflects how heavily state and local agencies are now investing in tracking predators who use mainstream apps to reach potential victims.
BSO has pursued these cases regardless of the suspect's background. In October 2023, Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony publicly announced the arrest of a BSO deputy following an investigation into alleged solicitation of a minor, underscoring the office's stated commitment to pursuing child exploitation charges no matter who is accused. No additional details about the Miami man's case, including formal charges filed by prosecutors, were available as of Thursday.
