Respect Your Selfie: Teen Charged with Child Porn for Her Own Explicit Tweets

[XLFD]

The advent of the cell phone into teen culture, along with the powers of technology and the internet have opened up a proverbial Pandora's box.  When an underage girl (or boy for that matter) takes a photo or video of themselves (a 'selfie') and then sends it to someone else or posts it in cyberspace somewhere, that is to be expected.  But what if that photo shows sexually explicit images of themselves?  Is the one who takes those pictures guilty of distributing child pornography or other crimes?  Is the receiver of those photos guilty of receiving child porn even if they did not know it was coming to them? 

 

These are fairly important questions, because police have to rely on what may be outdated laws dealing with the issue, and having to figure out what they need to do as law enforcers.  In the story below, a minor girl sends nude photos of herself to others via Twitter and gets charged with distributing child pornography by the police, and others with access to those photos (who may have sent them further along) may also be charged. 

 

It is not just an American problem; in Britain, a poll of 13 to 18 year olds last month found 60 percent had been asked to send a sexual picture or video, more than half said they had received such an image, and 40 percent said they had taken one. Fifteen percent said they’d sent naked or semi-naked pictures of themselves to people they didn’t even know.  Do we as a society come down hard on this, or show some restraint to what appears to be a common teenage fad?

 

 

JAMES CITY COUNTY, Va. (WAVY) – James City County Police say a teenager is facing child pornography charges after allegedly tweeting nude pictures of herself.

According to Stephanie Williams-Ortery with the James City County Police Department, officers received an anonymous tip about nude pictures posted on Twitter by the 16-year-old girl. It is unclear how many pictures were involved, but police say they were posted either on or around Jan. 30.

Williams-Ortery said photos were also sent to some boys.

A school resource officer was notified, and spoke with the teen and her mother.

“It’s not just friends that see what they post but also strangers and everyone else out there,” said Williams-Ortery. “You have no idea who’s out there watching. You never know who’s going to see what you post.”

The teen’s phone was confiscated for evidence, and she was charged with one count of distribution of child pornography. Williams-Ortery said other teens should be aware that they stand to get in trouble for pictures of this nature too, even if they aren’t the one’s who took the photo.

“I would hope that they would not then forward it on to their friends because then they become guilty also of distribution of child pornography, whether they know that or not,” Williams-Ortery said.

WAVY.com was informed that in the juvenile system this young woman and her parents could be ordered to complete a Sexting Education program. But there’s also the chance this could end up in court as a criminal matter with jail time as a possibility.

10 On Your Side talked to local parents who were surprised to hear the teen’s charge was so severe.

“I don’t think she should be charged with child pornography, because she is a child herself, but if she was 18 or older of course,” said parent Emily Altman.

“That is distributing, child pornography?” said parent Dometre Mobley. “She is a child, I don’t know what to think of that really.”

Police  say the teen crossed the line of sexting to child porn because of the lewdness of the photos.

Parents may also be surprised to know investigators say they are seeing a surge in these types of cases because teens see it as harmless sexting.

http://wavy.com/2014/02/05/teen-accused-of-tweeting-nude-selfies/ 

When girls (and boys) are photographing themselves and posting the images on what are, after all, social media, who is the victim?  A selfie-taker who has been taught to exploit and advertise her/his sex appeal?  Or the boy/girl who gets a pornographic message on his/her phone and has learned from public school since sex ed Year One that every sexual impulse is perfectly normal and natural and that the only thing to be ashamed of is shame itself?

 

Expect a new raft of social programs to correct girls’ “self-objectification” and to teach boys some new, weird meaning of consent.  Expect no one to develop any real solution in our schools or public sector, because that would involve teaching morality and values to our kids, which is too much like religion nowadays.  Nor would they teach the children to learn to be owners of themselves, for that would be totally detrimental to the propagation of our public system of education and the government control of all aspects of our lives.  This older girl below has a lesson that younger girls (and boys) should take a listen to:  own yourself.  Then they won't get into the quandaries forced into their heads by having to digest mixed messages of our current culture. 

 

 

[Willy]

Calling photos of a 16 year old girl child porn is absurd. Most older women wish they had the figure of a 16 year old.  This is a problem for parents to handle. Making this a criminal offense is not going to solve anything except make the teens do more of it and view it as a challenge to not get caught. Some teens just do some stupid things and the best way to solve this is to educate them on the risk of their photos being seen by some stalker or weirdo. The authorities are making to big of a deal over this because this has been going on for years.