Free Republic

Should children who snap racy photos on their cellphones and send them out to their friends be punished as child-pornography distributors or sex offenders? No, a Florida Senate panel said Monday. At least, not the first time they get caught. For the second consecutive year, the state Legislature has taken on “sexting,” the practice of sending sexually explicit text messages, photos or videos, usually via cellphone. A bill that has cleared two committees in the Senate and one in the House of Representatives would decriminalize sexting as a first offense for children who are under age. A similar measure passed...

William Scott Ritter Jr., a former United Nations weapons inspector who gained renown for his criticism of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, contends his online sexual encounters with teenage girls were only fantasy. Nearly two years ago, Ritter, of Delmar, watched his computer screen reveal that an anonymous person who had been exchanging sexually charged messages with him for 80 minutes was not a 15-year-old girl. It was a cop from a small town in northeast Pennsylvania, alone in his station house and trolling the Internet for suspected child predators. Ryan Venneman, a detective for the Barrett Township...

A Pennsylvania teen who stored intimate photos of herself on her cell phone — but never e-mailed or shared them with anyone other than her longtime boyfriend — settled her federal privacy case against high school officials who had seized the phone without a warrant and turned it over to prosecutors. Still unsettled, however, is the question of how far educators can go when it comes to fulfilling their obligation to keep sexually explicit images, audio and text from reaching the eyes and ears of minors while on school grounds. "I hope this settlement will lead school officials in the...

CHILTON - Calumet County's top prosecutor calls it an embarassing "lapse of judgement." After an anonymous leak, sexual text messages sent by District Attorney Ken Kratz in October 2009 were exposed. He resigned as chairman from the Wisconsin Crime Victims' Rights Board, but has no intention of leaving his elected post.

The case began when a teacher confiscated the cell phone of a 17-year-old senior for a violation of the school's use policy. The principal "found" explicit photos, which he turned over to law enforcement. Wyoming County District Attorney, responded by targeting 13 girls and three boys with threats of felony charges if they did not agree to take a class on the dangers of sexting…

ROMEOVILLE -- When Bridget Polaski stored naked pictures of herself on her cell phone, she never dreamed they would fall in the hands of cops she fears will slap them all over the Internet. "I'm just really upset about my pictures being all over the Internet, if that's where they end up landing," Polaski, 45, said of the seven or so nude cell phone photos that are now in police custody. Bridget Polaski, of Romeoville, was brought in for questioning Aug. 26 as Romeoville police investigated car vandalism. Police kept her cell phone as part of the investigation, but Polaski...

Marcel Williams is plopped down on a couch in his family's duplex apartment. The stillness is unusual for the 14-year-old, who a few years ago roamed football fields as a star running back for the national champion Flagler Junior Pee Wee Bulldogs. Since then, Marcel said he had been earning A's and B's at Buddy Taylor Middle School, where he also expected to continue playing football this year. Instead, school just started and Marcel finds himself slouched on the couch, expelled from the classroom and the football field until next year because of something called "tea-bagging" -- a crude taunt...

For the second time in two weeks, a man is suspected of taking cell phone photographs under women's dresses at a Northwest Side Wal-Mart. Martin Matthew Hemby, 20, was released from Bexar County Jail around 6 p.m. Wednesday after posting $5,000 bail. He faces one charge of improper photography. This is the second time San Antonio police have arrested Hemby on suspicion of taking improper photographs at a Wal-Mart Supercenter in the 1600 block of Vance Jackson Road — on July 23, Hemby was arrested, then released the next day after posting $10,000 bail. Hemby's most recent arrest is related...

The time has come for Melinda Dennehy to face the music. The ex-teacher from New Hampshire who we initially told you about back in March has pleaded guilty to e-mailing nude photos of herself to a 15-year-old male Londonderry High School student. Dennehy, 41, entered the plea on Monday to a misdemeanor charge of indecent exposure. Police say that she sent 'four sexy shots of herself,' with her 'genitals exposed,' to a 15-year-old male student, along with a detailed explanation of the sexual acts that she wanted to perform on him. She also reportedly kissed the boy on two separate...

STANTON – A man who two teen girls said was trying to take cell phone pictures of them outside a library – just feet from a sheriff's substation – was found to have pornographic images of minors in his phone, authorities said. Alejandro Lorenzo Contreras, 24, was trying to talk to two underage girls outside of the Stanton Library on Tuesday afternoon, said Lt. Jim England of the Orange County Sheriff's Department.

Canandaigua (WSYR-TV) - A Canandaigua school teacher is facing charges, accused of performing oral sex on a 17-year-old student. 36-year-old Marla Gurecki-Haskins is also accused of "Sexting" two other students. Police say some of the incidents happened in her classroom during school hours. According to court paperwork, she's accused of "engaging in text messaging of a sexual nature that encouraged a sexual relationship between the defendant and two 16 year old male students." Haskins is charged with official misconduct, two counts endangering welfare of a child and disseminating indecent material to a minor. The third charge is a felony. Haskins...

A Davis County juvenile court attorney is seeing at least one case a week involving teenagers as young as the seventh grade who send or ask for nude photographs via texting. Pre-teens and teenagers who take nude photos and text them to friends often do not realize they are abusing themselves, officials say. April is Child Abuse and Sexual Assault Awareness month. Officials in the Top of Utah are hoping parents will become more vigilant and educate their children that sending nude photos or sexually explicit texts is illegal, as well as inappropriate. "Kids are braver and more willing to...

DUBAI, March 17, 2010 (AFP) - Two Emirates Airline cabin crew in Dubai were given three-month jail terms for exchanging sexy text messages, a local daily reported on Wednesday. The then-married flight attendant, 42, and her male supervisor, 47, were convicted of "coercion to commit sin," the National daily reported court documents as saying. It said the pair -- both Indian -- were earlier sentenced to six months in prison to be followed by deportation, but an appeals court last week reduced the jail time and dropped the expulsion penalty. The court concluded there was not enough evidence to prove...

WAUKESHA, Wis. - A Wisconsin teen convicted of using Facebook to blackmail dozens of classmates into sex has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. Nineteen-year-old Anthony Stancl of New Berlin showed no emotion as the sentence was handed down Wednesday. Stancl pleaded no contest in December to two felonies, including repeated sexual assault of a child. He apologized during sentencing, saying he has learned to understand what his victims went through. He had faced a maximum 30-year sentence. Stancl is accused of posing as a girl on Facebook and tricking more than 30 male classmates into sending him...

A suburban Philadelphia school district used school-issued laptop webcams to spy on students at home, potentially catching them and their families in compromising situations, a family claims in a federal lawsuit. Lower Merion School District officials can activate the webcams without students' knowledge or permission, the suit said. Plaintiffs Michael and Holly Robbins suspect the cameras captured students and family members as they undressed and in other embarrassing situations, according to the suit. * * * The Robbinses said they learned of the alleged webcam images when Lindy Matsko, an assistant principal at Harriton High School, told their son that...

Sociology For Adults Only Malcolm A. Kline, January 20, 2010 Like Brittney Spears and Madonna or Tiger Woods and a groupie, Sociology and Pornography had to meet, and on the stomping grounds of the former field of study. Wesleyan just approved a forum—Sociology 420—entitled Pornocopia: Society and Pornography. The best passage is: “We hope to meet once a week for 2 hours in the evening. Anytime movies will be shown, there will be a second meeting for 2 hours. This would allow plenty of time for discussion as well as sufficient time to watch any documentaries as a class.” Right…...

In a nationally representative survey of those ages 12-17 conducted on landline and cell phones, the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project found: • 4 percent of cell-owning teens ages 12-17 say they have sent sexually suggestive, nude or nearly nude images of themselves to someone else via text messaging. • 15 percent of cell-owning teens ages 12-17 say they have received sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude images of someone they know via text messaging on their cell phone. • Older teens are much more likely to send and receive these images; 8 percent of 17-year-olds with...

OKLAHOMA CITY – Over 50 percent of 14-24 year olds have experienced some form of digital abuse, and 3 in 10 have sent or received nude pictures through text messages, said state Rep. Anastasia A. Pittman, who plans to file legislation next session to address Oklahoma ’s problem with sexting. Sexting is the sharing of sexually explicit photos, videos and chat by cell phone. More than a quarter of young people have been involved in sexting in some form, an Associated Press-MTV poll found. Pittman said the problem has hit home and has now become a serious problem in our...

Carrie Prejean is, in many ways, representative of today's young women. Her generation is "star struck", into all-things Hollywood, and programmed to use their bodies and sexual power to get ahead. In other ways, Carrie is remarkably different from her peers: She is "coming of age" in front of the entire world, with an army of enemies determined to seize upon her every error in order to destroy her. Young, beautiful "stars" are not allowed to challenge the status-quo and speak their own minds. If you want the fame and fortune that Tinseltown offers, you must play their game. Or...

Such is the level of indignation on the right at the left’s nastiness towards her and those who might abet it that I got yelled at by a friend last night for posting this. Now Radar gives us something new, which isn’t the only claim out there that she’s made more than one “biggest mistake of my life.” I understand the defensiveness on her behalf — search the archives and you’ll see that I’ve written plenty in her favor — but I also get Ace’s exasperation: My problem, instead, is that she has enlisted supporters, such as myself, to support...