OMG people are just fucking dumb. No one remembers what it was like being a teen I guess, hormones raging, logic receding (for those that exercise logic) lack of sleep oh yeah and lets not forget sexual frustration like you never feel again. People just want the kids to be precious innocent little angels till they turn 18 and they magically become adults with all the rights therein. Well we all do not mature at the same rates, children now days are maturing faster than any youths ever in history, but we will not recognize that, they must remain pure and sexless till they are full fledged adults of 35.
This attitude of purism in teens is why the teen pregnancy and teen aids rates are so high, instead of teaching sexual safety the schools teach that condoms are like Russian roulette and abstinence is the only way to protect yourself. Instead of enacting a real world approach we opt for fantastical ineffective methods like abstinence or religion, and we call the teens immature.
If you do not want your precious perfect little angelic creature to become a kiddie porn star do not buy them a phone with a camcorder in it, again this comes down to dumb-assed moronic parents.
The kids are paying for the phones and the plans by themselves right? Wrong the parents should be in jail for inducing child pornography and inducing its distribution if it is classified as pornography. Make an example out of these moronic parents and watch the cameras get disabled one by one.
WTF are teens doing with cell phones in the first place? Emergencies that is the typical excuse, you know how to make a call in an emergency-Collect at a payphone. Works for my kids, worked for me, worked for my parents, worked for their parents, and their parents had the telegraph and smoke signals, none of which INDUCE Child Pornography or its distribution.
Last time I checked nudes of kids are not illegal the pose and situation they are in at the time of the photograph is the determining factor to whether it is classified as porn or not.
A quick search on google, bing, or yahoo for nudism will turn legal nudes of minors, they are not legal because they are not sexual, just being nude does not make for sex.
If the girl in question was in a sexual pose centering on the genitals then it is porn and should be punished, but I'd be willing to wager that she was in front of a mirror just naked, I would further speculate that the girl took the photo by herself making it a self-portrait, she was not coerced or forced. Her first dumb move was sending to someone, not keeping it on her phone in her control.
Americans Students, American Politicians, American parents are not as bright as you might think. Ill has a 17 Year Age of Consent, being 16 she will be classified as a child, unless you feel life begins at conception she might have her age adjusted by 9 months and be considered an adult, but that is wishful thinking. Why is it that when a child acts like an adult, murder for example, they are punished as an adult, but when they display other adult behaviors like this one they are not even given the benefit of the doubt the murderer gets?
If the charges stick the lives of all the minors involved will forever be ruined all will have to register as sexual offenders despite they fact they are all probably virgins, they will forever be grouped with the pedophiles, rapists, molester and child murderers.
Let the punishment fit the crime.