And that’s still a bit messed up. It’s a felony for a teen to have nude pictures of themselves and they’ll be registered sex offenders for life and probably ineligible for most professions. Seems like quite a gross over reaction. There needs to be a lot of reform in this area but no politician wants to look like a “friend” to pedophiles.
The issue is that the picture then exists, and it’s hard to prove it was actually destroyed.
For example, when I was in high school, a bunch of girls would send nudes to guys. But that was 10 years ago. Those pictures still exist. Those dudes aren’t minors anymore. Their Messenger chats probably still exist somewhere. Nothing’s really preventing them from looking at those pictures again.
I get why it’s illegal. And, honestly, I find it kind of weird that there’s people trying to justify why it shouldn’t be illegal. You’re still allowed to have sex at that age. Just don’t take pictures/videos of it.
That makes complete sense except that stuff just does not register with teens. If a couple months in juvenile hall and 100 hours community service isn’t enough deterrent for a teenager then 5 years in jail and a lifelong label of “sex offender” won’t deter them. I recall seeing a picture of a classmate topless (under 18) and over 20 years later it finally dawned on me that it was child pornography.
If we prosecuted every offender to the full extent of the law then like half of every high school class would be in jail. Not to say that something should be legal as long as enough people are breaking the law but if millions of kids are violating some of the strictest laws in the country we’re probably not getting the full picture.
Which is more of a “zero-tolerance” policy, like unto giving the same punishment to a student defending themselves as the one given to the person who initiated the attack.
I get the point you’re tying to make. But minors taking nudes of themselves is illegal in a lot of places, because it’s still possession.
I agree, and on the one hand, I understand why it could be good to consider it illegal (to prevent child porn from existing), but it does also seem silly to treat it as a case of pedophilia.
Not just silly. Extremely damaging. We don’t even treat most other crimes minors commit this way. Records can often be expunged for other crimes. At the age of 18 they are generally sealed. But not in this case.
This is the government doing a bad job of regulating technology they do not fully understand the scope of in an attempt to save the children by punishing them sometimes for life. Over what essentially amounts to heavy flirting between people of their own age group.
Child porn is not okay and it should be illegal. But the law cannot always be applied in a way that is equal because a kid sending another kid a nude of themselves is not the same as an adult using the nude of a child for sexual gratification or excitement. One of those things is a natural normal thing. The other is extremely reprehensible and damaging to the victims used to create those images.
We have sex offender registries that are for serious crimes where people can’t live close to schools, need to be monitored, etc…examples of such crimes include…
I get the point you’re tying to make. But minors taking nudes of themselves is illegal in a lot of places, because it’s still possession.
And that’s still a bit messed up. It’s a felony for a teen to have nude pictures of themselves and they’ll be registered sex offenders for life and probably ineligible for most professions. Seems like quite a gross over reaction. There needs to be a lot of reform in this area but no politician wants to look like a “friend” to pedophiles.
It does seem a bit heavy handed when the context is just two high schoolers tryna smash.
The issue is that the picture then exists, and it’s hard to prove it was actually destroyed.
For example, when I was in high school, a bunch of girls would send nudes to guys. But that was 10 years ago. Those pictures still exist. Those dudes aren’t minors anymore. Their Messenger chats probably still exist somewhere. Nothing’s really preventing them from looking at those pictures again.
I get why it’s illegal. And, honestly, I find it kind of weird that there’s people trying to justify why it shouldn’t be illegal. You’re still allowed to have sex at that age. Just don’t take pictures/videos of it.
That makes complete sense except that stuff just does not register with teens. If a couple months in juvenile hall and 100 hours community service isn’t enough deterrent for a teenager then 5 years in jail and a lifelong label of “sex offender” won’t deter them. I recall seeing a picture of a classmate topless (under 18) and over 20 years later it finally dawned on me that it was child pornography.
If we prosecuted every offender to the full extent of the law then like half of every high school class would be in jail. Not to say that something should be legal as long as enough people are breaking the law but if millions of kids are violating some of the strictest laws in the country we’re probably not getting the full picture.
They’re both pedos and should be locked up for life.
Which is more of a “zero-tolerance” policy, like unto giving the same punishment to a student defending themselves as the one given to the person who initiated the attack.
I agree, and on the one hand, I understand why it could be good to consider it illegal (to prevent child porn from existing), but it does also seem silly to treat it as a case of pedophilia.
Not just silly. Extremely damaging. We don’t even treat most other crimes minors commit this way. Records can often be expunged for other crimes. At the age of 18 they are generally sealed. But not in this case.
This is the government doing a bad job of regulating technology they do not fully understand the scope of in an attempt to save the children by punishing them sometimes for life. Over what essentially amounts to heavy flirting between people of their own age group.
Child porn is not okay and it should be illegal. But the law cannot always be applied in a way that is equal because a kid sending another kid a nude of themselves is not the same as an adult using the nude of a child for sexual gratification or excitement. One of those things is a natural normal thing. The other is extremely reprehensible and damaging to the victims used to create those images.
That’s a fair point.
We have sex offender registries that are for serious crimes where people can’t live close to schools, need to be monitored, etc…examples of such crimes include…