Court Asked to Allow Prosecution for "Sexting"

[exfileme]

A girl pictured topless at a slumber party three years ago is the subject of prosecution for "texting."

Court Asked to Allow Prosecution for "Sexting" : Read more

 

[Guest]

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.

 

[mavroxur]

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?

 

[AMW1011]

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.

 

[JD13]

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....

 

[wdmso]

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

 

[tmike]

"she--along with her parents--refused to undertake a "re-education" program."

a-la A Clockwork Orange?

 

[Pailin]

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

 

[haunted one]

*Enters court room and waves middle finger to all*

 

[Pailin]

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 !!!

 

[xterrain15]

"It's like charging the victim with the crime. "
The perfect way to state it.

 

[megabyteme6662002]

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.

 

[eddieroolz]

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.

 

[Dekasav]

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.

 

[falchard]

?_? So... Why wasn't the prosecutor fined for being a moron?

 

[anamaniac]

[citation][nom]xterrain15[/nom]"It's like charging the victim with the crime. " The perfect way to state it.[/citation]
[citation][nom]Pailin[/nom]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 !!![/citation]
[citation][nom]eddieroolz[/nom]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.[/citation]
Damn, sometimes, the comments are more inetresting than the article.
[citation][nom]haunted one[/nom]*Enters court room and waves middle finger to all*[/citation]
+1

 

[mystoccowgod]

[citation][nom]megabyteme6662002[/nom]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.[/citation]
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.

 

[wormy]

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

 

[Greg_77]

[citation][nom]megabyteme6662002[/nom]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.[/citation]

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?

 

[jackjones]

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!