Posted on 06/04/2008 7:31:38 PM PDT by abt87
HARTFORD, Connecticut (AP) -- Passing notes in study hall or getting your best friend to ask a boy if he likes you or, you know, LIKES you, is so last century. Nowadays, teenagers are snapping naked pictures of themselves on their cell phones and sending them to their boyfriends and girlfriends.
Many of these pictures are falling into the wrong hands -- or worse, everyone's hands, via the Internet -- and leading to criminal charges.
School administrators in Santa Fe, Texas, confiscated dozens of cell phones from students in May after nude photos of two junior high girls began circulating. The girls had sent the photos to their boyfriends, who forwarded them to others, officials said.
Some boys are photographing themselves, too. In Utah, a 16-year-old boy was charged with a felony for sending nude photos of himself over a cell phone to several girls. Four middle school students -- two boys and two girls -- in Daphne, Alabama, took photos of themselves on their cell phones and traded the images back and forth, authorities said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
You need to relax, did you have a life as a kid?
If you believe that, I have this really cool bridge which is available.
I find it impossible that anyone 17 years old could not be aware that this is not only illegal, but is big time trouble that lasts forever.
Amen. The pedos aside, the ubiquity of cameras is just making activity easier that teens had the intent to do before. Middle schoolers generally don’t know about age of consent or child pornography laws, and if they’re taking pictures of each other, I fail to see why they should be treated like pedos when they’re in the same age group.
When kids distribute pictures, whether of themselves or others, it is still dissemination of pornography.
Your statement is incorrect. A 14 year old will not be put in prison for 20 years for such a crime.
LOL!
In December of 2007 we finally replaced our 7-year-old phones, and being cranky and old fashioned, I just wanted a damn phone.
Didn't happen.
I got the simplest free phone available, and I now have a camera whether I like it or not...
Jeez, somebody needs to protect them from themselves. Their parents certainly aren’t.
And how’s that different then, say, a 35 year old producing porn featuring a 20-something? Child pornography laws are meant to reflect the age of consent in pornography.
If they got those picture in a sneaky way (ie. going into girls’ bathrooms and stalking them) then they should face the same punishments that adults would for doing such acts to fellow adults, not because of the age of the person. If we try a minor with laws that are meant to enforce age group boundaries between minors/adults, then we are pushing the laws beyond their original intent, and beyond our cultural normalities as people within age groups.
To charge a minor as if he/she is an adult on “To Catch a Predator” is like arresting teens both under the age of consent just for having sex.
And there is where you went wrong. Cameras on phones represent a revenue stream for the cell phone company. Each "media message" that you send (notice there is no other way to get a picture off the phone), means that the phone company gets 25-cents.
If you want a phone without a camera, music player, video player, etc. you have to pay $$$ because you are depriving the phone company of their revenue stream.
For a girlfriend and boyfriend to exchange photos is one thing. When a former boyfriend (or girlfriend), in a fit of petty pique, posts explicit photos of his/her underage “friend” on the Internet, yes, I think there should be a severe penalty. In this instance they are not just harming themselves, but exposing the other party to danger from REAL pedophiles.
Maybe, but I would not support forcing them to register as a sex offender. Probation and community service would be a better solution in that case.
The cell phone has become a modern baby sitting extension cord. Parents used to physically keep tabs on their kids and that’s been replaced with a phone call. Instead of “I’ll be here at 4:00pm to pick you up” it’s now “call me when you’re finished”.
Not to mention the fact that they are so cheap that it no longer no matters for a lot of parents, of how often they break or lose them.
“If you want a phone without a camera, music player, video player, etc. you have to pay $$$ because you are depriving the phone company of their revenue stream. “
A little black paint on the lens and problem solved.
“Cameras on phones represent a revenue stream for the cell phone company”
Both our phones have cameras and in the over 2 years that we hqave had them we’ve never taken a picture with the phone.
We even have text messaging blocked on our phones since we won’t wastze the time to use it and don’t know anyone that does.
Then the public schools should teach them those things -- instead of how to put a condom on a cucumber...
Modesty is a wonderful virtue.
Actually, that's a parent's function to teach them what's illegal and such. I had no problem with graphically showing my 14 year old daughter how simple it is for her picture or *any* picture to end up in public on the internet. A girl she knows at school did this with a cell phone (she's 18) and ended up on the internet. I showed my daughter the picture in all its glory. She understood the chain of events that led to it, and that taught her more than anything I could have said.
I also pointed out to her that any nude/pornographic pictures of anyone under 18 gets people shipped off to prison no matter how innocent taking the picture seemed, and she got that point, too. Sadly, there's a lot of teenagers out there who woouldn't have understood such a message. I'd like to think that my child understood it at least in part because of what her mother and I have taught her.
Also, if a teenager is taught more about sex than "Don't", as a lot of parents like to teach, he or she will have a better understand of the several things you shouldn't do lightly, *and why*. I think some of the worst excesses of teen sexuality these days are because the only sexual education a lot of kids get is from TV and internet, and that's because their parents prefer to bury their heads in the sand, and only teach them that you shouldn't do it, but never teach them enough for them to understand why not.
Ah, the wonders of technology. It seems whenever a new technology comes out that the inventors promise will lead to a bright future, it’s most popular consequence is usually something a lot more degrading or appalling.
Yes, I did have a life as a kid and it DID NOT include trading pictures of my naked body.
What? Should we just hug them and tell them everything will be okay and make them promise not to do it again?
What they did was a serious FELONY! I didn’t propose sending them to jail like an adult, but the seriousness of the crime must be imposed on them.
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