JANUARY 28--A pair of Indiana middle school students are the latest minors to face felony charges for allegedly "sexting" naked photos to each other. The students--a 13-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy--were charged in connection with an incident last week at Ben Franklin Middle School in Valparaiso. The students are each facing felony child exploitation and possession of child pornography charges, according to the below police report. The case against the minors began last week when the girl had her cell phone confiscated after it rang during class. Crying, she told a teacher that "a 6th grade boy had sent her a dirty picture and she was going to get into trouble." A subsequent investigation determined that the boy had sent her a photo of his "exposed genitals" and that she had responded by texting him a shot of her "exposed body and breasts." The girl, the report notes, showed the explicit photo of the boy to a friend of hers, a seventh grade student at a local Catholic school. After conferring with prosecutors, the juveniles were charged with the two felony counts.
It is an interesting debate, and I'm not sure I know how I feel about it. In Canada, where I live, if a 17 year old girl takes naked pictures of herself, or has them taken of her, that is legally considered child pornography. So, let's say her 17 year old boyfriend has pictures of her. He can be charged for that, but he is legally allowed to see her naked, and fuck her, (age of consent is 14, or maybe 16 now) but he can't have nude pics of her.
I think I would lean more toward saying that it is ok for two people of the same age to exchange pics in general. But the idea of 12, and 13 year olds doing that does bother me. That is too young to understand the full weight of what they are doing and the risks involved.
Its ludicrous, zero common sense. I think there should be like an age cut off or something. 18+ its a crime, 17 and under its the parents job to discipline and no crime. Then maybe have like a 6 year margin, so if an 17 year old has a nude pic of a 14 year old its not a crime, but if that same 17 year old had like a 10 year old pic, then its a crime for juvenile court.
Something like that, kind of convoluted though, could get confusing. Just seems silly to punish peers at that age. When I was 14 I wanted to bang every girl that was between 12 and 50, the thought of myself being underage never entered my mind.
In order to know virtue, you must first become acquainted with vice. - Donatien Alphonse Francois de Sade
------- En vis mann slår aldri en hund i klubben med en stokk, fordi hunden vil vende rundt og biter mannens ballene av.
Quote by bikebum1975 umm reason NOT to give your kid at that age a cell phone that can A. take pictures and B. has internet capabilities on it.
I think you have totally made the basic point-parents indulge their children far too much.I do not believe it is at all necessary for children to have a mobile phone at all.IF there are outstanding reasons to make it necessary then a basic phone is all that is required and make sure it is pay as you go thus eliminating a huge bill [I know one parent who got a £400 bill one month for a child's mobile]
I think it's ridiculous that children can be charged with child pornography. I thought it was adults who weren't supposed to view photos of naked children, not other children. Next they will be calling the kids pedophiles and warning the neighborhoods about them.
Quote by anarchist I think it's ridiculous that children can be charged with child pornography. I thought it was adults who weren't supposed to view photos of naked children, not other children. Next they will be calling the kids pedophiles and warning the neighborhoods about them.
Exactly! If those kids are convicted of child pornography charges, they will have to register as sex offenders for the rest of their lives. They'll have to warn all the neighbors when they move to a new place, it could bar them from certain jobs, etc. This is ridiculous. What happened to kids being KIDS. It's not like they distributed it all over the internet or were selling it to adults or something. grrr.
I have told both my teenage kids that if they ever do something as stupid as sexting...I will take their phones and stop paying their service. They know I always mean what I say and say what I mean. I really think its up to parents to lay down the law and follow through. When my son screwed up in high school and got caught drinking, I followed through on my promise to stop paying his car insurance if he ever drank. Since he admitted it to me on his own and was at least smart enough to not drive, I made it a 3 month suspension. It hurt his bank account, but taught him a valuable lesson....mama follows through.
My kids tell me everything...they would rather I find out from their own mouths then find out second hand. I always make sure that the punishment fits the crime and that it's less severe if I hear about it directly from them. In turn, I work hard at NOT freaking out when they tell me things. My kids like that they don't have to lie to me...and I like that I don't have to worry about what they are doing...they tell me. I know some of you are thinking, "boy is SHE naive". But I will tell you that if you teach your children that that can trust you, they will.
When my son was in HS he had many opportunities to buy/smoke weed. He didn't because we had talked about how marijuana could be laced with all kinds of other things and you just never could be sure of the source. Unlike a bottle of beer that comes from a manufacturer and has standards in quality....and is opened by the consumer...weed is not regulated and is often cut with other things. He was smart enough to look at it from the "I don't want to ruin my future" perspective. Of course I could have said, "No son of MINE is going to smoke weed...and if you do you're grounded!" But appealing to his intellect and treating him like a person who should respect himself worked better.
Its the same with sexting. I explained to both kids that the moment something gets written down or sent out....its available for the whole world to see...and share. They respect themselves, and me, way too much to do something that would compromise that.
But as far as charging kids for child pornography? I think they really need a new law that addresses this issue specifically with minors in mind. But Jezzie...when they send anything out electronically....they need to know that it CAN and very likely WILL be distributed all over the internet....so their parents need to teach them that concept!
That's exactly what I thought, too, Bike. Why does a 12 year old kid have a cell phone with graphics capability? It all comes down to the parents again.
But appealing to his intellect and treating him like a person who should respect himself worked better.
That's how I raised my kids, too. What I told them made sense to them, instead of,"Dad is just making rules". They know how karma works. Freedom and responsibility go hand in hand.
But as far as charging kids for child pornography? I think they really need a new law that addresses this issue specifically with minors in mind. But Jezzie...when they send anything out electronically....they need to know that it CAN and very likely WILL be distributed all over the internet....so their parents need to teach them that concept!
That's exactly my point though, if we're going to say their parents should have taught them better, then why are we punishing the kids so extremely? I know at some point you cannot blame your parents for your actions, but these kids are 12 and 13, do you really think they can see the long term consequences of this? Maybe their parents' should be charged with STUPIDITY, but does that mean the kids should be punished for it? And where do you draw the line? What about a kid that takes pictures of his girlfriend, for his personal use on a camera? Or is a great young artist and draws a picture of her, or a girl who vividly describes her boyfriend's genitalia? Seriously when they are the same age it is ridiculous. Besides, it doesn't sound like they had any plans for distribution, it was for each other. This is so stupid.
I don't think any one should be punished for this. Let's face it, how mature were we at that age? When two kids who go to class together flirt, it by definition is not an exploitative relationship. They're peers! They're equals, which would not be the case if an adult entered into a relationship with them. Instead of using legal structures designed to cope with an entirely different type of problem to make examples of them we should use education about the very real consequences, like having your 'sext' sent on to others.
Honestly, how many of us would have done differently if the tools were available to us when we were that age? How many of us might send one today to our adult partner if we knew they alone might see it? Sexting is merely a new form of flirting, and we do like to flirt.
Nor do their parents qualify for specific sanctions. It's simply not possible to know every single thing your kids do, particularly when technology has made it possible that all you need is 30 seconds alone to send a text. Instead we need a society which deals with sex as a normal part of life, with a realistic set of expectations about what is and is not expected of both children and adults. That may be a fantasy, but it's what needed.