By: LISA R. WILSON
It’s the newest, latest trend among school kids, and it’s not downloading songs on iPods or playing the current edition of Grand Theft Auto. It’s called “sexting”—sending graphic images and pornographic videos via text message to friends. It’s becoming such a problem that major metropolis cities, such as San Diego, have an entire team on their police department dedicated to sexting and internet crimes—often working on 60-70 cases at a time.
Although in this context sexting is generally done between school friends, it’s important to note that no matter the circumstance, it is illegal to possess, distribute or manufacture pornography involving anyone less than 18 years of age. Therefore, students who are minors themselves and are found distributing or possessing such images can be found guilty of child pornography…and can face up to 10 years in prison.
On October 3rd, police in Newark, Ohio, arrested a 15-year-old girl on juvenile child pornography charges for allegedly sending nude cell phone photos of herself to classmates. Authorities are also considering charges for students who received the photos.
In La Crosse, Wisconsin, a 17-year-old boy recently was charged with child pornography, sexual exploitation of a child and defamation for allegedly posting nude photos of his 16-year-old ex-girlfriend on his MySpace page. The girl had taken the pictures with her cell phone at her mother’s home and e-mailed them to the boyfriend, authorities said.
Under federal law, child pornography is a criminal act, and is defined as a visual depiction of any kind, including a drawing, cartoon, sculpture, or painting, photograph, film, video, or computer-generated image or picture, where it depicts a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct and is obscene. These illegal images can be produced and presented in various forms including print media, videotape, film, CD, the internet, and yes, cell phones.
Parents today face many challenges staying abreast of their child’s involvement in all things, legal and otherwise. However, something that appears as innocent as texting can in fact be a catalyst to a world of legal woes. If you have a teenager in your household who does have a cell phone and does engage in texting (this is probably redundant), it is recommended to talk with your teen and make sure that the images and photos that come to and from his or her cell are within legal boundaries. Being busted for child pornography, when a person is a minor themselves, is not something to be taken lightly. Even if the intentions were without intent to harm, being convicted of such a crime is not mere “child’s play”—and can cause irreparable damage to a budding future.
For more information on child pornography or other sex crimes, contact a Lead Counsel Criminal Law Attorney in your area today.
Lindsey O'Neill is the Director of Legal Content and Strategic Development at LawInfo.com. Ms. O'Neill is a California licensed attorney based in La Jolla and experienced in a wide variety of legal and business matters.
Is it possible for the modern witch hunts to be any more idiotic than this one? Sadly, yes, but you’d be hard pressed to imagine the monumentally mean spirited small minds needed to think they’re doing some sort of justice.
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redwood Reply:
January 30th, 2009 at 10:45 am
Perhaps you are not the parent of a child that is having NUDE photos being distributed. Do I think we need some intervention, yes! Do I think parents need to be more involved in talking to their kids about sex, YES! Does the police need to be involved – yes! It may lead to individuals getting help they may need or realizing just how serious the situation is.
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From the article above:
“If you have a teenager in your household who does have a cell phone and does engage in texting (this is probably redundant), it is recommended to talk with your teen and make sure that the images and photos that come to and from his or her cell are within legal boundaries. Being busted for child pornography, when a person is a minor themselves, is not something to be taken lightly.”
OK, I’m a mom, and I have two daughters, one 10, the other 15. How do I define what is illegal to my 16-year-old daughter? Do I define pornography? Child pornography? Do I try to distinguish erotica from pornography?
Well, I’m not doing any of that, and despite that I think my daughters are going to be fine, and not get into this sort of trouble.
I think it’s important to deal with the language that’s being made to fit here, and how it really doesn’t fit. I don’t think any of the kids who have taken nude pictures of themselves for a friend (or two) have thought of what they were doing as “pornography” as I understand it, which has to have some sort of commercial aspect to it. I don’t think they were doing it as a ‘joke’ either, I think it was like a love letter in picture form. Erotica, in other words.
What I am doing is saying that if she wants to send a boyfriend a slightly racy, funny picture of herself, it’s ok with me, and she doesn’t need to show it to me but I’d hope that she could describe it to me and she’s done so, I think, to both of our satisfaction. Whatever the law is, I think that’s more important, as what I hope she’ll end up doing is something that she and I and other (hopefully) reasonable people will be able to defend if challenged. I’ve also said that she needs to understand that whatever she gets on a picture (or piece of paper, if it’s a literal love letter) could be shared with friends, and even I might see it someday. So she needs to understand that what she does needs to be something that she won’t feel humiliated or threatened if it gets shared around, but maybe a little embarrassed, that would be ok.
Love letters can be like that, you know, embarrassing to see…and read…out of content. That sort of embarrassment is normal and inevitable, while the humiliation that society and the legal system has imposed on increasing numbers of young women who send their boyfriend a “racy” photo is not.
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