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- Wake Up! I am sorry but I have had enough of people talking about speak to the parents. I am an educator and I will tell you this from 25+ years in the "trneches". Some of the parents are cluless and have lose any boundaries, if they have even established any with their children. they want to be buddies and not guardians or teachers. Pedophila begins in childhood, you are not just an adult and bam your are a pedophila. It is behavior that has been labled as "experimenting" or " kids being kids" durin adolescence. Wait until one of your children has to deal with this exploding issue. It is not pretty and for young women it is extremely devestating in a double standard social society. It may appear harsh to those seekign to keep "freedom" dictates but remeber freedopme is not always free. The actions of a few effects the many and when a few students get placed in the perdicament of dealing with their actions maybe the education necessary to see this is not a vicitmless crime maybe it will stop and more permissive guidleines can be created. STOP CODDLING THESE CHIDLREN! This is not a harmless action, zealous or not at least the legal system is taking action when parents have not had the guts to have truthful and clear conversations with their children. Man and woman up.
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- As far as I understand it, the laws against child pornography & exploitation of a minor are very cut and dried: it is illegal to take and distribute sexually revealing images of minors. The law does not specify any age bracket (in other words, it does not see a difference between whether an adult or a minor takes the image). So in that respect, under current federal law the kids who are sexting are no less guilty of distributing child pornography than if they had been adults.
I have no problem with that. In fact, I don't think that the law goes far enough. The parents of the kids should be charged with child endangerment for giving their children cellphones that have built-in cameras (thereby providing their children with the technological "weapon" for committing the crime) and for not providing proper supervision. Furthermore I believe that camera phones should come with age-restrictive warning labels ("Not suitable for use by minors"). It is obvious that children are not mature enough to refrain from sending lewd photos of themselves to their friends. Such a device does not belong in their hands unsupervised.
And once again we have a case of parents not doing their jobs, which is why I think the parents should also be held accountable. I don't see any justifiable reason that a child should have a camera phone in the first place. Why not just give your kid a bottle of vodka? Or a gun? Or a box of rat poison? But if you, as a parent, are stupid and irresponsible enough to put advanced technology, which carries with it the potential for abuse, into the hands of your minor children at least have the responsibility and good sense to discuss what is and is not appropriate camera phone behavior, and be willing to supervise the device's use and mete out punishment when the thing is misused.
I do agree that the legal punishment aspect is out of whack. Making sexting a misdemeanor should be adequate punishment. It needn't be a felony. However the child protection laws are so exceedingly harsh in most cases that it doesn't surprise me that sexting is a felony. Obviously the sexual offender laws need to be revisited, especially where the non-violent sex crime laws are concerned. Too many people are being forced to suffer lifetime consequences for non-violent "crimes". Check out the ilvoices.com website for more information on sex offender laws. - Reply to this comment
- What a crock of B.S. The over zealous prosecutor is using to ruin the childrens lives in this case. He should he prosecuted for trying to ruin the childrens lives. HE is the real perpatraitor, and he is tax supported. We the people need to rise up and take the power back away from these elected criminals who prove they cannot be trusted with the power we have given them. What a shame. Kids this age are going to have sex, and that is not a crime, but take a picture of themselves and send it to their friends, whooo, now a law (that was written by some nit-wittend hair brained bureaucrat the we elected) is broken that some zealous prosecutor is willing to charge and prosecute these kids for doing things that kids do.. How freaking lame is this country to put up with the organized criminal activity of our judicial system.
My book Misery Injustice tells about the judicial atrocities I have endured with the judicial sytem in Missouri. I see it is not just Missouri that has hair brained judicial officials in their courthouses.
www.miseryinjustice.com - Reply to this comment
- As has already been pointed out, this is an over-zealous and inappropriate application of the criminal law. Anytime a prosecutor uses laws designed to protect children to actually destroy children, it is time for the people to rise up and take power back from those who have proved they can't be trusted with that power. FOR GOD?S Sake, people, PLEASE stand up for FREEDOM before you loose it all to the nanny state!!!
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- As has already been pointed out, this is an over-zealous and inappropriate application of the criminal law. Anytime a prosecutor uses laws designed to protect children to actually destroy children, it is time for the people to rise up and take power back from those who have proved they can't be trusted with that power. FOR GOD?S Sake, people, stand up for FREEDOM before you loose it all to the nanny state!!!
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- The real irony is that if these teens had simply been caught having sex, there would be no criminal charges. But take a picture? Uh oh, now you're a dangerous sexual predator! I am constantly amazed at the basic compulsion of humans to control and criminalize sexual behavior in others. Why is that?
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- Maybe the picture sending/receiving feature needs to be removed for all children and teens.
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- I would think the evidence collected should be thrown out do to the fact that the students personal property was searched without a warrant or parental consent.
It would be similar to a student breaking school rules and parks their car on school property without a school permit. Does the school then have the right to search their vehicle? I don't believe they do. - Reply to this comment
- This is crazy, charging a felony to a kid for taking a photo of their OWN body and sending it out!
"What we're trying to do is say: 'Let's not charge a felony, let's get a common sense law together that charges a misdemeanor,'" Grove said."
Who cares what the charge is, juvenile records are expunged or sealed at age 18 anyway, but this shows how crazy this country has gotten with laws - Reply to this comment
- "Should they be crimes at all?" Bailey asked. "This is an over-zealous and inappropriate application of the criminal law."
Amen, Brother, Amen. - Reply to this comment
