Charging kids with creating kiddie porn

Dahlia Lithwick
Slate.com

The latest stupid teenage craze is called “sexting,” said Dahlia Lithwick, and grown-ups clearly have no idea what to do about it. “Sexting” is the act of sending naked photos of yourself via your cell phone. In a new survey, one in five teens admits he or she has sent or posted naked photos of himself or herself, which, of course, wind up getting sent around to other kids, and posted on websites. Parents and schools are flummoxed about what to do. Prosecutors in 11 states, meanwhile, have overreacted wildly—charging kids who send or receive these photos with “child pornography.” Recently, three Pennsylvania girls (ages 14 and 15) faced child-porn charges after they sexted their boyfriends. Now, sexting is certainly a dumb and naïve thing to do, but stupidity and naïveté are not felonies—or shouldn’t be. Moralistic prosecutors might well remember that teens who are convicted of trafficking in kiddie porn can, under the law, be classified as sex offenders. Kiddie porn laws were passed to protect children, not to mark them with a criminal record that lasts a lifetime.