Court Asked to Allow Prosecution for "Sexting"
A girl pictured topless at a slumber party three years ago is the subject of prosecution for "texting."
A Pennsylvania prosecutor told a U.S. appellate court on Friday that a teenage girl found topless in a "sexting" cell phone picture should face child-pornography charges. The image--along with a few additional images of other girls--was distributed among sixteen of her middle-school classmates. Officials of the Tunkhannock School District in rural Pennsylvania, who contacted the county prosecutor's office in January 2008, discovered the pictures.
The American Civil Liberties Union disagreed with the prosecutor on Friday, saying that the "sexting" images didn't meet the definition of child pornography: the depiction of graphic sexual acts with minors created for commercial gain. According to the ACLU (via Reuters), the images consisted of two girls wearing bras, and a third standing topless outside a shower with a towel wrapped around her waist. There was no sign of sexual activity.
Mary Jo Miller, the mother of one of the girls seen in a bra, said that the images were originally taken during a slumber party back in 2006 when the girls were just twelve. "It was a training bra," Miller told reporters Friday morning outside the appeals court. "You are going to see more provocative photos in a Victoria's Secret catalog."
The prosecutor, on the other hand, argued that the images were indeed pornographic because they were "disseminated for the purposes of sexual stimulation and so would be of great interest to child molesters." The prosecutor is seeking to press charges against the "topless" girl because she--along with her parents--refused to undertake a "re-education" program.
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What a waste of resources. The Wyoming County, PA prosecutor needs something better to do than this. What could the end result of this possibly be? The girl is going to get probation and no permanent record because of her age, but because of Megan's Law, she will probably be required to register as a sex offender when she becomes an adult. What a crock.
These "sexting" prosecutions are getting waaaaaaaay out of hand. They're kids, and they make bad decisions sometimes. I really think it's sad that a bad, relatively non-harmful decision can result in the kid ruining their life by being branded a "sex offender". There really needs to be changes made to the laws in regards to this. Makes no sense to me how a teenager taking a topless picture gets the same branding as a pedophile or a rapist....just lump them all together as sex offenders....wtf?
This is extremely ridiculous. The kids sent pictures of themselves in bras or topless. So we should charge them as sex offenders, because the prosecutor thinks they have the decision making skills to be fully accountable. However, those kids are deemed not to have the decision making skills to vote, have sex, marry, drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes, drive, be outside past 10:00 PM or so, and CAN'T EVEN POST ON THIS WEBSITE WITHOUT PARENT PERMISSION.
Yep that makes sense.
They're barking up the wrong tree! It's like charging the victim with the crime. I' sure some of them regret ever sending them in the first place, once they get pasted all over the net....
This isn't about the Law this a prosecutor with ambitions to further his run for public office hes a Republican!!!!and trying to appeal to HIS "BASE" how sad and he just lost his re election bid in 2009
"she--along with her parents--refused to undertake a "re-education" program."
a-la A Clockwork Orange?
Is plainly crazy, kids with camera phones will always take pics of themselves and be texting them to each other for laughs
I think the prosecutors have perverted minds to be thinking 15 year old kids (all girls?) are doing this for sexual stimulation!!!
I really hope the prosecutors get disbarred for misuse of their positions of responsibility.
For Fcks sake "forced re-education program" ???
are they Nuts.
Sounds like some messed up Sci-Fi apocalyptic vision of the future no one should take seriously...
And people said the conspiracy nuts complaining about new laws to "protect" us were crazy --- Now this have gone exactly the way the paranoid people feared they would
Turns out they weren't paranoid after all
*Enters court room and waves middle finger to all*
And the point of this is to stop harm coming to children...
So they are now going to punish children for sending pictures of themselves to each other...?
and Ruin a childs life.
So They are then Causing harm to a childs life.
Send the Judge down for child abuse I say !!!
"It's like charging the victim with the crime. "
The perfect way to state it.
You guys are totally missing the point of why the court system wants to fight this. These girls don't realize what they are getting themselves into by sending out naked pictures of themselves at such a young age when half of them don't even know what they want out of life yet. If you think it shouldn't be illegal for a child to take a naked picture of another child or themselves and distribute it, then why would you argue it should be illegal for an adult to do the same thing to a child? They want to set an example that this is not moral behavior for children to do. They should indeed punish the person that took the photo, and in this case, its the child IN the photo. You guys saying they are going to ruin this one childs life by prosecuting them for this is narrow minded to say the least. She very well could have ruined her own life by taking these photos. With how fast things spread across the internet, do you think it should be okay for your kid to take a picture of him/herself naked only to have half the world see it? New trends and new technologies need to new laws and ways to abuse these technologies and this is most DEFINATELY a worthwhile case.
I disagree with the American Civil Liberties Union. Youths are stupid, yes, but that doesn't mean we should cover it up and pretend it never happened.
So, you want to label any kid (male or female) as a sex offender, convict them of what I'm sure is a felony (creating/distributing child pornography) for taking some stupid pic of themselves/their friend at a slumber party? I can't imagine having to write down "Yes, convicted of felony. Felony was distributing child pornography" on every job application I ever filled out.
I never thought that an innocent picture taken of a 12-year old by her 12-year old friend could be more "unlawful" and "immoral" than a crotch-shot pic of an 18-year old taken pornographically.
And really, random topless 12-year old is porn?
Bloody ridiculous.
?_? So... Why wasn't the prosecutor fined for being a moron?
"It's like charging the victim with the crime. " The perfect way to state it.
And the point of this is to stop harm coming to children...So they are now going to punish children for sending pictures of themselves to each other...?and Ruin a childs life.So They are then Causing harm to a childs life.Send the Judge down for child abuse I say !!!
I disagree with the American Civil Liberties Union. Youths are stupid, yes, but that doesn't mean we should cover it up and pretend it never happened.
Damn, sometimes, the comments are more inetresting than the article.
*Enters court room and waves middle finger to all*
+1
You guys are totally missing the point of why the court system wants to fight this. These girls don't realize what they are getting themselves into by sending out naked pictures of themselves at such a young age when half of them don't even know what they want out of life yet. If you think it shouldn't be illegal for a child to take a naked picture of another child or themselves and distribute it, then why would you argue it should be illegal for an adult to do the same thing to a child? They want to set an example that this is not moral behavior for children to do. They should indeed punish the person that took the photo, and in this case, its the child IN the photo. You guys saying they are going to ruin this one childs life by prosecuting them for this is narrow minded to say the least. She very well could have ruined her own life by taking these photos. With how fast things spread across the internet, do you think it should be okay for your kid to take a picture of him/herself naked only to have half the world see it? New trends and new technologies need to new laws and ways to abuse these technologies and this is most DEFINATELY a worthwhile case.
Over-protection causes over reaction, thread safety when you try to protect the next carriers of the torch from the world. if inexperienced they may drop it.
these little girls r whores...they were obviously sending them to some boy to entice him to have sex with them...and the sad part is...THEY R IN MIDDLE SCHOOL...they should just not b allowed to have cell phones anymore...that would b worse than any amount of community service for a young female...especially one thats a little whore
You guys are totally missing the point of why the court system wants to fight this. These girls don't realize what they are getting themselves into by sending out naked pictures of themselves at such a young age when half of them don't even know what they want out of life yet. If you think it shouldn't be illegal for a child to take a naked picture of another child or themselves and distribute it, then why would you argue it should be illegal for an adult to do the same thing to a child? They want to set an example that this is not moral behavior for children to do. They should indeed punish the person that took the photo, and in this case, its the child IN the photo. You guys saying they are going to ruin this one childs life by prosecuting them for this is narrow minded to say the least. She very well could have ruined her own life by taking these photos. With how fast things spread across the internet, do you think it should be okay for your kid to take a picture of him/herself naked only to have half the world see it? New trends and new technologies need to new laws and ways to abuse these technologies and this is most DEFINATELY a worthwhile case.
I think you are missing the point. Charging a child for the crime of taking their own photo is ridicules. You argue that it is illegal for an adult to make a pornographic photo of a child and, hence, a child that does such an act should be punished as well. By that logic, shouldn't it be illegal for adults to take such photos of themselves as well? In the end, stiffly punishing a person in order to protect them seems like a poor plan. I mean, really, can a 12 year old girl be charged with sexual abuse against them self?
The pictures "would be of great interest to child molesters".
Child molesters are interesting in all photos of kids, clothed or otherwise. This is the same logical that certain religious fanatics have, and insist that their women dress in veils, so that they do not incite men.
I'm sure that child molesters have a great interest in children's TV too. Alcoholics have a great interest in drink, but that doesn't people who buy wine, alcoholics.
For goodness sake America, grow up!
I am a 54 year old and believe me when I tell you that sexting is a lot less than anything my generation did in its wildest days.To think of all the crazy stunts we pulled in the early 70's as teens.
Be glad thse kids are not shooting up Heroin,droppin lsd on a daily usage,selling drugs,being a delinquent in a big city.
this sexting to me is their way of going against the establishment.
the establishment being their parents,school,authority.
At least they will still have their brains and their lives unlike a lot of us old timer troublemakers.
A lot of folks I knew are dead from drugs and viloence.
"The prosecutor is seeking to press charges against the "topless" girl because she--along with her parents--refused to undertake a "re-education" program."
Re-education program? That reminds me of the actions taken in dictatorships. Neither the parents nor the (I believe) 14 year old girl seem to need be re-educated. Perhaps the county prosecutor needs to be re-eduacated in the proper application of the law. It wasn't designed to be a means of scoring political points - it was designed to safeguard citizens.
I kinda liked the idea I read in another article - sorry, I can't remember which one.
Someone can send a nude picture of themself to another, but you can not send a picture of someone else, meaning you can't forward that picture or whatever.
Girl (or boy) A can send a picture of herself to Boy (or girl) A, but Boy A can not forward it to anyone.
Girl (or boy) A can't take a picture of Girl (or boy) B and send it to someone.
PS. I also think that it's funny that in almost all places in North America you can have sex with someone 16, and some places younger, but you can't take pictures of it, even for your own use.
*shakes head* We need a law overhaul , or better yet, a revolution , Was it not Washington that said we need one ever couple decades?
Why don't we surgically attach clothing to all kids that way there can be none of this issue? This is just silly.
I imagine that beaches are of great interest to child molesters, Wal-mart too. Are we gonna close all the beaches and Wal-marts for the sake of the kids. A 9-11 yr old boy was molested in the Wal-mart bathroom near where I live, during business hours. Nevermind that the vast majority of the molesters are related to the child, or are known and trusted by the child, as a prosecutor I would hope he know this.
We waste time and money on grandiose ideas like this but we keep cutting education, have homeless starving children on the streets, have kids suffering simple maladies because there is no money for basic treatment and the priority is this foolishness. This is another way we have lost our country to the politicians, and those whom they serve. This guy has only one objective get re-elected and push as many panic buttons while looking while he cares about the kids. He doesn't he is merely seeking self gain and would gladly destroy the entire family if it was to his benefit, which it is.
There are obviously too few homicides, robberies, assults and rapes to investigate. I perfectly understands that they must fill their days with something useful at the DA's office.
Isn't the purpose of the child-pornography laws to protect minors from being exploited by molesters? And if so, is it even possible for a child - or anyone, for that matter - to knowingly and deliberately exploit themselves? By that logic, the child who works underage should be arrested for allowing himself to be exploited. The child who injures herself playing soccer should be arrested for endangering the welfare of a minor.
This prosecutor is trying to make an example of these girls because there are other instances of sexting that are exploitation and he wants to show that he's doing something about it, and send a message to kids not to do it. I could maybe see prosecuting the girl who took the topless photo of the other girl if it was done without consent... but I can't see prosecuting the girl being photographed.
Pretty sure I have some childhood photos of myself playing in the bath and such as a little kid, took by my mother, in an album somewhere. Guess that would make me a paedophile by the prosecution's standards here.
[citation][nom]megabyteme6662002 :[/nom]She very well could have ruined her own life by taking these photos[citation]
How does a naked picture of oneself ruin their lives? Because people like you will bully them? You've never seen a naked person before? Or you'd rather prosecute them before the bullies get to them? Why would anyone be so petty and judgemental?
Last I checked this was still America..Re-Education??? sounds like shock therapy... Last i checked that was outlawed in the 90's in America. You cannot punish one for exploiting themselves unless its prostitution as far as I can remember.
Pretty sure I have some childhood photos of myself playing in the bath and such as a little kid, took by my mother, in an album somewhere. Guess that would make me a paedophile by the prosecution's standards here.
Lawyers already tried that one.
If anything, the parents need to be prosecuted for negligence. All you morons who want to act like nothing happened are being more of a moron than the prosecutor because you are obvioulsy ignorant of the ramifications of all this. This is wrong. Nude pictures of minors is AGAINST THE LAW, PERIOD. The law was broken. Period. And there are laws against distributing nude pictures of minors. And these girls broke the law. PERIOD. Some kind of prosecution needs to take place. Rather than prosecute the kids as sex offenders. Prosecute the parents for child neglect and fine them to strike some fear into parents to take responsibility for their children's actions that are illegal. That is the bottom line. The law was broken. But the ACLU doesn't care about the law or else they wouldn't always be trying to tear down every law enforcing decency and morality. The ACLU wants the eradication of personal responsibility and wants chaos.