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Sexting, Teenagers and Felony Child Pornography
Author: Brennan14 Apr
“Teenagers, Sexting with Cell Phones
and Felony Child Pornography”
April is Child Abuse Prevention month. This is a month to become aware of the different types of child abuse and what we can do to prevent or diminish it.
There just may be one type of child abuse that you aren’t familiar with – “sexting” – which is becoming more widespread daily.
We all know that cell phones with cameras have opened up a whole new world of possibilities for users. Unfortunately, many youngsters are abusing themselves and others with a new type of texting, involving graphic displays. Statistics show that up to 18% of teenage girls (almost one in five) has participated.
Whether the explicit displays are of blatant nudity and sex acts, violence, drunkeness and/or drug use, teenagers are not only breaking laws, they are also doing long-term damage to themselves or others.
While teenagers may view “sexting” (a combination of texting and graphic images) as the cool thing to do, there is much more at stake.
Though many teens see sexting as “paparazzi for teens”, it is much more serious than they know.
Because sexting usually involves participants under the age of 18, the graphic images actually are considered Child Pornography.
This means teens who participate in sexting can be prosecuted under Felony Child Pornography laws and be labeled as a “sex offender” for a period of 20 years.
Felony Sex Offenders?
Sexting is explicit and stupid, but do we want to label these young people as “Felony Sex Offenders”? I think not!
On the other hand, I definitely disagree with the Vermont legislature that wants to legalize sexting. This is a nasty problem in every state, but legalizing it is NOT the solution, in my opinion.
Perhaps Ohio has the right idea – make sexting a misdemeanor, rather than a felony.
This is a problem that can be mostly stopped by explaining a few facts of life and law to teens and preteens.
Experts say that the way to approach teens is NOT to discuss the matter as an issue of RIGHT or WRONG, but as an issue of COOL vs. UNCOOL! In other words, speak to teens in their language.
- Teens need to know that the practice of “tagging” is increasing. That’s when someone gets access to the explicit photo and broadcasts it online. This can be done by ANYONE and the results spread like wildfire, especially among internet predators and pedophiles.
- Reports show that MySpace posts about drugs, sex and violence are increasing (up to an estimated one half of all postings) and being spread worldwide.
- Teens need to know that any information posted about them online is available to anyone, including future employers, as well as the creepy internet predators and pornographers mentioned before.
Google Yourself
As a precautionary measure, it would be wise for parents to suggest that their child Google’s their own name, nickname and screen names, to see what information and what websites they are already on. This can be eye-opening. In fact, this is a good idea for parents as well.
Another bit of advice for parents is to scan the teen’s MySpace/Facebook/Twitter sites, or any others they belong to. Experts suggest you can give them a few hours warning so they have time to remove any inappropriate material, which is very desirable. Knowing that parents will be monitoring those sites on an ongoing basis is an excellent preventative.
Another Epidemic “Sign of the Times”
We now have the Sexting Epidemic, to go along with the Pregnancy, Obesity and Dropout Epidemics.
Parents and all concerned citizens need to become aware of what is really happening out there in the world with our young people.
It’s time for CHANGE!
What do you think?
Brennan
2 Responses for "Sexting, Teenagers and Felony Child Pornography"
Possible First Amendment protection for teen “sexters?”
The justification for not protecting child pornography under the First Amendment is that it is necessary to take prurient advantage of a child to make the picture. Hand drawn or computer generated child porn is not illegal (unless they use a live child for an artist’s subject I suppose) – one thinks movie scenes in “The Glitter Dome.”
A sexting teen who transmits her own is not being taken advantage of by an adult or anyone else. If she sends nude pictures to an 80 year old her part in the transaction might very well be protected under the First Amendment – once the first principles of the scenario are considered. Ditto for her side of sexting to a friend.
There is an outside chance a child possessing such the “sext” should be considered to be taking prurient advantage of a minor under the First Amendment (depending on which generation of judges gets hold of it maybe) – but does it make sense to make a teen boyfriend — who may even have made legal sexual contact with the girl — the equivalent of an adult who possesses child pornography?
The free speech crossover seems to be when boys distribute nude pictures of girls among themselves without the girls permission – certainly not free speech. But to begin with no child was hurt making the image. The kind of personal damage to a child making pornographic images may be much more devastating than that of having the image passed around (again, once thinks of “The Glitter Dome”) – at least most of the time.
Wouldn’t we feel more comfortable with law that punishes such a gross invasion of privacy in a case for case damage way – not rounding up dozens of students and plastering them all with sex offender status and heavy jail time – but treating the offense as the privacy offense it really is?
Dear Denis,
You make some very good points.
I definitely agree that it is a horrible idea to “round up dozens of students and plaster them all with sex offender status and heavy jail time”.
What we have at present is a “case by case” scenario – where local officials are prosecuting or not, depending on a number of factors. Prosecution invariably leads to some serious consequences, whether jail time or a ruined reputation.
The point I want to emphasize in my post is that we all need to be aware that “sexting” exists, is growing, and needs to be dealt with in some manner other than charging a youngster with a felony child pornography charge.
Making “sexters” registered sex offenders for 20 years doesn’t seem to me to be an acceptable solution either.
Thanks for your input.
Brennan
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