[Suvuseh]

I lol, not because i think what these kids are doing is funny, but because of the clusterfuct this puts those whose job it is to prosecute in. This seems an unstoppable tide. Every new cellphone or laptop comes with some type of photo capability. What i am talking about is the recent phenomena of Sexting: i.e. sending nude photos/video from cell phone to cellphone. Sexting is just fine in most cases, the problem is, it is just as popular for those under the age of 18 as it is with those above it... maybe moreso.

http://www.wpxi.com/news/18469160/detail.html#-
"GREENSBURG, Pa. -- Three teenage girls who allegedly sent nude or semi-nude cell phone pictures of themselves, and three male classmates in a Greensburg Salem High School who received them, are charged with child pornography.
Police said the girls are 14 or 15, and the boys charged with receiving the photos are 16 or 17. None are being identified because most criminal cases in Pennsylvania juvenile courts are not public.
"It was a self portrait taken of a juvenile female taking pictures of her body, nude," said Capt. George Seranko of the Greensburg Police Department.
Police said school officials learned of the photos in October. That's when a student was seen using a cell phone during school hours, which violates school rules. The phone was seized, and the photos were found on it, police said. When police investigated, other phones with more pictures were seized.
"Taking nude pictures of yourself, nothing good can come out of it," said Seranko.
The Greensburg Salem School District issued a statement on Tuesday saying there was “no evidence of inappropriate activity on school grounds or during the school day other than the violation of the (school's) electronic devices policy.”
The school district said it only became aware of the arrest of the students on Monday and will continue to work cooperatively with police, as well as continue to enforce its electronic devices policy and educate students on the dangers of inappropriate use of electronic devices.
Police said the girls are being charged with manufacturing, disseminating or possessing child pornography while the boys face charges of possession.
"It's very dangerous," said Seranko. "Once it's on a cell phone, that cell phone can be put on the Internet where everyone in the world can get access to that juvenile picture. You don't realize what you are doing until it's already done." http://news.cincinnati.com/article/2...0102/901130326 "If I were to go through the cell phones in this building right now of 1,500 students, I would venture to say that half to two-thirds have indecent photos, either of themselves or somebody else in school," said Jim Brown, school resource officer at Glen Este High School.
Turpin High School Principal Peggy Johnson thinks that the results would be similar - about 50-50 - in her building.
According to the national study, most teens who send sexually suggestive content send to boyfriends or girlfriends, while others say they send such material to those they want to date or hook up with or to someone they only know online.
Brown, who also is Glen Este Middle School's resource officer, said of the 14-year-old boy's cell phone photos last year: "They were as graphic as you would see in any Penthouse magazine, I've been told."
The study also showed that 44 percent of teens say it's common for sexually explicit images and text messages - sexting - to be shared with people other than the intended recipient. My question is, what can be done about this situation? I really don't think prosecuting teenagers for what really amounts to embarrassing indescretion is the right answer, especially when the punishment will likely require them to register as sex offenders until they are 21 or 25 is the right answer. But i am also pretty sure ignoring the situation is also not the right course.

[Teeppoodiug]

I don't agree with the CP charges at all. They did something very stupid, but charges like that will follow them.

I don't know what you really can do about it. As much as I don't agree with these, imo, over the top charges, maybe they are the only way to discourage this behaviour?

[bawayTeen]

The child pornography charges should either be dropped or laughed out of court. The police should never have gotten involved. It's up to the parents to decide how to discipline their children, but there's not much that can be done to stop this sort of thing other than removing cellphone privileges entirely.

[KimLinbert]

The shitty thing is that someone is always going to be made the example to sensationalize the charges and scare kids away from doing the same behavior. It's a laughable attempt, because it never works. Of course, the last thing I'd want is my 14 year old daughter to show her newly developed tits to someone else, but to be honest good parenting is the best medicine for a young indecent slut in the making

[User-Luser]

Making parents looking after theirs kids and what they can do on their phines lol..

[MannoFr]

Ohh jeez. Kids showing other kids their private parts. It's been happening since the beginning of time.
The child porn charges are moronic, there are no adults or signs of other sinister sexual conduct here. The girls took photos of themselves a and sent them to some boys. No one should be changed.
You can't stop this simply because kids do it as it's all new and exciting and they want to explore. All you can simply do is advise them of the repercussions of taking pictures and sending them to others can cause.

[NvrNoNowX]

The child pornography charges should either be dropped or laughed out of court. The police should never have gotten involved. It's up to the parents to decide how to discipline their children, but there's not much that can be done to stop this sort of thing other than removing cellphone privileges entirely.

Regardless of who created it, its still creation and distribution of child pornography. Being a minor doesn't give you the right to break the law.

In many cases those images can end up on the internet, or at least in the hands of the guy's friends. Who then might share it with other's, etc. While it might not be the classic idea of creating CP where some rapist glasses wearing mouthbreather sits in a basement abusing a child, they're still creating and distributing pornographic images of minors. The issue is that the law is the law. I don't like a lot of laws, but I don't break them simply because I don't like them.

Should we put some guidelines on child porn? Is there child porn that is "ok"?

If someone wants to show someone else pictures of their naked body I couldn't care less. If you want to be an internet camwhore that's fine by me, but our society has decided that this is taboo. We've made it illegal, that's the law, and it needs to be followed. The law applies to people regardless of their age, gender, or race. Note that I didn't include social status, since if you're rich and famous you can pee on a 15 year old girl.

Edit: TL;DR version - Our laws need a re-vamp. Oh and Cuomo is a retard.

[Donadoni1809]

thats just ridiculous
a 14 year old is sexually developed and has every right to express themselves sexually
this world is losing its mind to liberal fascists

[MannoFr]

Regardless of who created it, its still creation and distribution of child pornography. Being a minor doesn't give you the right to break the law.

Should we put some guidelines on child porn? Is there child porn that is "ok"?

Mate I completely disagree with you. I honestly don't understand how can you accuse a minor of creating porn, when when it was images of themselves and they have not harmed anyone else.
When I was around 6 I remember doing all sorts of naughty things with girls and their privates. Perhaps I should be thrown in jail back then for child molestation?
Well I got caught by the girls father. Basically got told off by my parents and that was that, and didn't see the girl for a while. I don't see how this whole situation with this girl could have been kept private just like my parents and the girls parents kept it. The pubic humiliation to those involved is the cruelest thing to come out of this!

[Donadoni1809]

Mate I completely disagree with you. I honestly don't understand how can you accuse a minor of creating porn, when when it was images of themselves and they have not harmed anyone else.
When I was around 6 I remember doing all sorts of naughty things with girls and their privates. Perhaps I should be thrown in jail back then for child molestation?
Well I got caught by the girls father. Basically got told off by my parents and that was that, and didn't see the girl for a while. I don't see how this whole situation with this girl could have been kept private just like my parents and the girls parents kept it. The pubic humiliation to those involved is the cruelest thing to come out of this!

exactly, child pornography only becomes child pornography when made and viewed by adults,
damn when i was 5 some girl showed me hers does that make her a criminal

[Donadoni1809]

oh and in my opinion a 14 year old is not a child

[feqlmwtuqx]

The child pornography charges should either be dropped or laughed out of court. The police should never have gotten involved. It's up to the parents to decide how to discipline their children, but there's not much that can be done to stop this sort of thing other than removing cellphone privileges entirely.

Parents? Take responsibility for their child's actions and discipline them?

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH H!

Gedoudahere! [thumbdown]

[nobodyhere]

exactly, child pornography only becomes child pornography when made and viewed by adults,
damn when i was 5 some girl showed me hers does that make her a criminal

I was 7 when my 5 year old brother did the old flash and run to my 10 year old sisters friends, I pissed myself laughing [rofl]

It would be idiotic to think that the police should have got involved then.

[NvrNoNowX]

exactly, child pornography only becomes child pornography when made and viewed by adults,
damn when i was 5 some girl showed me hers does that make her a criminal

Actually, there are laws against that kind of stuff too. If you allow minors to have sex in your house you can get charged with a couple different crimes. So yeah.. if your son bangs some chick, and she goes and cries to her parents, you can get in trouble for it. Its pretty wacked out.

People do dump myspace, photobucket, etc. images and minor nudes do turn up in those dumps. Not to mention when cell photos make their rounds they can easily wind up on the net for everyone to see. CP is CP. To say otherwise is to say that pornography involving a minor is acceptable under certain circumstances. Although let's not forget Tracy Lords who became a porn star at like 15. I think she started up her own company too.

I didn't say I agree with the laws. The last part of my post pretty much said I think its all bullshit and people need to take responsibility for their actions. If you snap nude photos of yourself and they end up on net then you've just learned a valuable life lesson.. do NOT send nude photos to people. You're an idiot, and I bet you won't do that again.

I fully support changing laws so that people can't blame other people for their stupidity, and to also not punish people for stupidity that isn't going to hurt anyone except perhaps themselves. Let's not forget that our laws already don't allow a minor to consent. There's a man in Texas registered as a rapist for life. The victim? His wife. They're happily married and his wife thinks its bullshit... but that's our legal system for ya. Actually, had the timing been a little bit different, I could have been in the same boat with the woman I'm married to...

These are young adults who are old enough to know right from wrong. They broke the law, and it makes sense to punish them. While I don't agree with the law, I agree that laws need to be enforced. Same for non-smoking laws. While I think its 100% BS to tell a private owner of a business that they can't have smoking there, I feel that as long as its the law it needs to be followed. Don't break the law just because you don't like it, have it changed instead.

I do agree with what most people are saying in that it's pretty much a load of crap, but there's also the fact that the law is the law, and what they're doing makes perfect sense given our current laws. They created and distributed child pornography.

I think the whole CP craze we have going on right now, and being used as an excuse to shut down news group access, is blown way out of proportion. Everyone is so focused on already produced content that nobody seems to care about the victims. Who the hell cares if people want to send nude photos. Whatever. How about we actually protect the kids being abused and forced into pornography. While we're busy arresting senators who download CP, and teens who send their own nudes to others, some kid somewhere is actually being raped. We shouldn't be wasting manpower on the first 2. The third is where we should solely concentrate our efforst. Saving 1 child from the fate is worth more than arresting every single pervert in the world.

thats just ridiculous
a 14 year old is sexually developed and has every right to express themselves sexually
this world is losing its mind to liberal fascists Old men know better than mother nature. Ignore your biology.. its obviously wrong.

When I was around 6 I remember doing all sorts of naughty things with girls and their privates. Perhaps I should be thrown in jail back then for child molestation? I think we all played "doctor" when we were kids. You show me yours I'll show you mine.

Parents? Take responsibility for their child's actions and discipline them? RESPONSIBILITY? IN MY AMERICA? THAT'S THE DEVIL'S TALK RIGHT THERE! MY KID'S AN ANGEL, AND I AIN'T DUN NOTHIN WRONG!

[Czrzftmz]

RESPONSIBILITY? IN MY AMERICA? THAT'S THE DEVIL'S TALK RIGHT THERE! MY KID'S AN ANGEL, AND I AIN'T DUN NOTHIN WRONG!

Exactly, blame the school, or even society at large, but not the parents!!! I remember an article in a UK paper about a mum who had 3 daughters aged 12,14 and 16, and all 3 had children. She said it was the schools fault for not teaching them sex education properly. I mean come on ...

[Suvuseh]

Mate I completely disagree with you. I honestly don't understand how can you accuse a minor of creating porn, when when it was images of themselves and they have not harmed anyone else.
When I was around 6 I remember doing all sorts of naughty things with girls and their privates. Perhaps I should be thrown in jail back then for child molestation?
Well I got caught by the girls father. Basically got told off by my parents and that was that, and didn't see the girl for a while. I don't see how this whole situation with this girl could have been kept private just like my parents and the girls parents kept it. The pubic humiliation to those involved is the cruelest thing to come out of this!

I see many problems with this argument. 1st off, can a 22 year old girl make her own porn? If you somehow doubt it is possible there are a milennia of websites I can direct u to that will say otherwise.

While it seems popular in this thread to bring up how 5 and 6 year olds play doctor, a 5 or 6 year old has virtually no understanding of sex (at least they didn't when I was that age) and not too many kids that age are sporting their own phone or laptop, so I really don't forsee this phenomena taking root in preteens.

There is a major difference between a 14 year old and the 5-8 year olds spoken of in the way back machine.

While I don't think the charges necessarily fit the crime for the 14-17 year olds involved in these situations, I am also quite certain the "play doctor when I was 6" argument is irrelevant.

[MannoFr]

I see many problems with this argument. 1st off, can a 22 year old girl make her own porn? If you somehow doubt it is possible there are a milennia of websites I can direct u to that will say otherwise.

While it seems popular in this thread to bring up how 5 and 6 year olds play doctor, a 5 or 6 year old has virtually no understanding of sex (at least they didn't when I was that age) and not too many kids that age are sporting their own phone or laptop, so I really don't forsee this phenomena taking root in preteens.

There is a major difference between a 14 year old and the 5-8 year olds spoken of in the way back machine.

While I don't think the charges necessarily fit the crime for the 14-17 year olds involved in these situations, I am also quite certain the "play doctor when I was 6" argument is irrelevant.

Where does it say I think 22 year olds can't make porn?
When you're 22 that porn is just classed porn, not child porn. This thread is talking about child porn convictions.
I understand there is a difference between 6 and 14, however at 14 you're at an age where you want to express your sexuality, it's only natural. At this age it tough on kids, because there is more involved then just showing your genitals. There are emotions involved too, you have peers that gossip, and popularity groups etc. That's why I say what's happening to the poor teenage girl that made a mistake is that she's now being publicly humiliated. At 14 people try all sorts of strange things to get the attention of someone they like. Now at 14 this public shaming over something that should have been a private matter is more psychologically damaging than anything.

[Suvuseh]

Where does it say I think 22 year olds can't make porn?
When you're 22 that porn is just classed porn, not child porn. This thread is talking about child porn convictions.
.

Seriously, lenny, are you that dense?

U said this"I honestly don't understand how can you accuse a minor of creating porn, when when it was images of themselves and they have not harmed anyone else"

I retorted that there are plenty of 22 year olds that make there own porn. Where exactly do you think most of these girls get the idea that sending nude crotch shots of themselves might be a good idea? I dunno, maybe the bazillion porn sites on the web? My point is, that yes, a 14-17 year old knows what they are doing. They are not in the innocent bliss of a 6 year olds mind. They may not understand all of the ramifications of creating the video or photo, but they understand the intent of their action, which makes them quite capable of producing porn.

That said, I still am not for potentially making sex offenders out half the kids in highscool.

[MannoFr]

Seriously, lenny, are you that dense?

U said this"I honestly don't understand how can you accuse a minor of creating porn, when when it was images of themselves and they have not harmed anyone else"

I retorted that there are plenty of 22 year olds that make there own porn. Where exactly do you think most of these girls get the idea that sending nude crotch shots of themselves might be a good idea?

OK now I see the angle you're coming from. IMO not clearly worded the first time...

No need to abuse people. [thumbdown]

Yeah they might get the idea from those sort of websites and images. Which strengthens my point. Teenagers are exposed to this sort of stuff these days, which makes it more unbelievable that they want to blame the teenage girl for her actions when clearly there are outside influences are from adults. So this sort of behavior is going to be more common in 2009. Yet the people prosecuting the girl grew up in an age where they saw their first glimpses of playboy when they turned 18 in 1970 and don't really understand the situation of the information ages of 2009.

[Suvuseh]

Yeah they might get the idea from those sort of websites and images. Which strengthens my point. Teenagers are exposed to this sort of stuff these days, which makes it more unbelievable that they want to blame the teenage girl for her actions when clearly there are outside influences are from adults. So this sort of behavior is going to be more common in 2009. Yet the people prosecuting the girl grew up in an age where they saw their first glimpses of playboy when they turned 18 in 1970 and don't really understand the situation of the information ages of 2009.

It strengthens your point? I am sorry, but your point seems to be that because they are a minor they cannot be held responsible for their actions. If this is your point is an absurd one. A 14-17 yr old is held accountable for any other laws they break, why should this one be any different? Sure, the penalties may need to be adjusted, maybe 1000 hrs of community service helping those who have been sexually abused or sumsuch, but that is far from what you seem to suggest, which i surmise to be the embarrassment is punishment enough. These articles arent the first i've seen, and so far, embarrassment hasn't seemed much a deterrent for this type of situation.