Ellen Goodman's 4/24/09 column discusses a question legally facing the parents of teens who likely defined sex offender as ANYONE else other than their kid.
Is 'sexting' the same as porn?
"If sexting sends parents into a spiral, it pushes prosecutors into high gear. We've had Pennsylvania high school girls threatened with child porn charges for posing. We have a middle school boy in Indiana facing obscenity charges for sending a naked photo to his classmates. We even have an 18-year-old who sent nude photos of his girlfriend now listed as a sex offender alongside child rapists."
I have no way of knowing, but my guess is, most readers of the Frog are way past their teens. I'll go out on a limb to say that as teens, we all did something stupid enough to look back and say, "If I had been caught.....whew." That would include law enforcement. Even they were teens, once upon a time.
Reasoning doesn't kick in for young adults until somewhere around age 25. This developmental lag fuels the juvenile justice system. For teens caught up in the ramifications of choices made--judicial consequences imposed are whispered among peers, "that could've been me."
Today's young people, this whole 'sexting' thing? That could be you.
And actually, your parents are sort of to blame. Because they allowed government to step in and parent you--their child--with laws meant to control great harm to kids, but instead ensnared many a person convicted of offenses deemed sexual by lawmakers--the intended protected (kids and teens) are ensnared in the net themselves.
When law becomes a television show, that's about the time thinking Americans should demand more from their politicians.
But most didn't. And now teenagers are paying the price of inaction. These days, it's no longer the kids of sex offenders feeling the pain of collateral damage of child protection laws. It's any kid with a cell phone.
The future voters of America.
Think before you post.
