Sexting by Teenagers: Holy Smoke!

[libby]

The following first caught my eye because it is taking place locally -- in a Northern Virginia suburb of the Washington DC metro area. All I remember specifically is that local police were preparing to have a teenage boy's erection produced by means other than arousal if necessary so they could compare his -- uh -- anatomy with that in e-mails he sent to his 15-year-old girlfriend, and then prosecute him if it's a match...: 

Sexts, kids and cops


The Post's reports last week about the efforts of Manassas officials to forcibly induce an erection in a teenager to pursue "sexting" charges against him deservedly provoked national outrage. Manassas police have since backed down and now say that they won't execute the search warrant. But the Commonwealth of Virginia was prepared to create child pornography so that it could prosecute a 17-year-old for sending videos of himself to his then girlfriend, who was 15.

The very notion that the state would need to sexually exploit a minor in order to protect minors from sexual exploitation serves as a tidy microcosm of the "sexting" debate in general: Too many schools, police, judges and prosecutors have concluded that we must destroy these kids in order to save them.

The best example of the absurdity of this approach is a 2007 case in Florida, in which a 16-year-old-girl and a 17-year- old boy were convicted of "directing or promoting a photograph featuring the sexual conduct of a child" and possession of child pornography for e-mailing explicit photos to one another. The two hadn't broken the law by having sex, only by creating, sending and possessing photos of their sex. The state of Florida thought it had to protect these two minors from the theoretical damage tto their lives or careers that might have been done, had the photos been released, by turning them into convicted child pornographers.

The argument in favor of prosecuting sexting is that the photos could wind up in the hands of a sexual predator. Perhaps that has happened but, having followed this issue for years, I can't recall one such incident, much less a trend. I don't think anyone would argue that it's a good idea for minors to send explicit photos of themselves to one another. But there's simply no evidence that the harm they're imposing upon themselves by doing so justifies treating them as criminals.

Sex isn't the only context in which we're ruining kids under the pretense of saving them. We're protecting kids from drugs by arresting and jailing them for marijuana possession. We're protecting them from the (mostly nonexistent) problem of school violence by assigning law enforcement to patrol middle and high schools -- so kids who were once reprimanded, assigned detention or possibly suspended for fighting, throwing food or truancy are now fed into the criminal justice system.

We have an increasing tendency to use the criminal justice system to "fix" the sorts of problems once addressed by families, schools, religious organizations and other civic institutions.

Perhaps the best thing we can do to help kids right now is to stop the people who are trying to save them.

Radley Balko, THE WATCH,
www.washingtonpost.com

[Locutus]

Sexts, kids and cops


The Post's reports last week about the efforts of Manassas officials to forcibly induce an erection in a teenager to pursue "sexting" charges against him deservedly provoked national outrage. Manassas police have since backed down and now say that they won't execute the search warrant. But the Commonwealth of Virginia was prepared to create child pornography so that it could prosecute a 17-year-old for sending videos of himself to his then girlfriend, who was 15.

^^ That part there is particularly disturbing.  I've always thought that law enforcement is now going too far in prosecuting kids for this kind of thing, but the above absolutely takes the cake as far as anything I've ever seen before.  These laws need to be changed to catch up to the technological age in which children now live. 

[The Troll]

  The worse thing that can happen to these teenagers is to get the legal system, lawyers, cops and prosecutors trying to criminalize teenage sexing.   

  Give the cops and the  prosecutors an inch and the will take a mile and destroy thousand of teenagers.       Just like the war on drugs.   

[Henry Hawk]

  The worse thing that can happen to these teenagers is to get the legal system, lawyers, cops and prosecutors trying to criminalize teenage sexing.   

  Give the cops and the  prosecutors an inch and the will take a mile and destroy thousand of teenagers.       Just like the war on drugs.   

Troll it is NOT the cops.  They just enforce the laws that was made by congress.....this one is probably another looney, POS law made by liberals.

If a law lacks common sense, I betya it was made by a liberal.

[Locutus]

Troll it is NOT the cops.  They just enforce the laws that was made by congress.....this one is probably another looney, POS law made by liberals.

If a law lacks common sense, I betya it was made by a liberal.

^^  That's the most ridiculous thing I've seen you post in a long time.  Isn't it the Republicans who are always trying to legislate sex and morality (as long as nobody finds out what they themselves are doing behind closed doors)?

[Exterminator]

That's the most ridiculous thing I've seen you post in a long time.  Isn't it the Republicans who are always trying to legislate sex and morality (as long as nobody finds out what they themselves are doing behind closed doors)?

Of course it is.

[The Troll]

Of course it is.

  You got my 110% agreement of that statement. 

[Palehorse]

I wonder how many warrants they had to secure to get the phones for a search? What? None?!

Before this is over, the US will make Nazi Germany look like training. . . 

[Henry Hawk]

Whose watch is this happening under...........hmmmm

[Exterminator]

Whose watch is this happening under...........hmmmm

Yes, because the POTUS personally oversees the Manassas, VA police department.   

[pariann]

I wish that I could like comments on here.

[Palehorse]

I wish that I could like comments on here.

You can. 

Hi Pari. How are you? ? ? How is Brent? ? ? How is the family? ? ?

Nice to see you around here again! 

[The Troll]

Whose watch is this happening under...........hmmmm

  Only a Dick Head would try to blame Obama, Henry.     If there is a thing like Karma, you're going to come back as a super sized Hemorrhoid.