Stacie L. Patterson Law Blog

All across the country, child pornography laws are being questioned 
when it comes to "sexting".  Sexting; sending or receiving sexually 
explicit photographs by cell phone or computer, is resulting in grave 
consequences for teenagers.  There are several cases of teens being 
forced to register as sex offenders, labeling them as sexual predators,
child pornographers and pedophiles.  Kids as young as 12  have been
threatened with prosecution in some instances.

Most of these cases seem innocent enough.  Social networking sites 
such as Myspace and Facebook seem to be a popular starting point for
a lot of them.  A teenager will post a picture of him/herself, the 
picture gets circulated and the next thing they know, they are being 
charged with distribution of child pornography.  Some cases seem to 
stem from bad break-ups and bitter exes.  As in the case of Phillip 
Alpert, who, after a fight sent a nude picture of his then 16 year old 
girlfriend to many people, is now a registered sex offender.

Many states have changed or are looking into changing legislation in 
order to responsibly handle these cases.  Child pornography laws are 
obviously set to protect children from predators.  These cases don't 
really fall under the category of a predatory nature, though by the 
books, laws are being broken.  Some states, including Vermont and 
Nebraska have already changed their laws to reduce the penalties 
teenagers are being given for sexting.  Meanwhile, legislation may be 
changed in at least fourteen more states to treat these cases 
differently than adult pornographers and sexual predators.  An article 
in the New York Times reports that some of the 14 states considering 
legislation would make sexting a misdemeanor, while others would treat 
it as a juvenile offense, such as truancy or running away.  The new 
Nebraska law gives a pass to children under 18 who send their own 
photograph to a willing recipient who is at least 15. On the other 
hand, a teenager who passes the photograph on to friends could face
a felony child pornography charge and five years in prison.

While these kids may think they're just being silly, sharing a private 
picture with their boy/girl friend, or not really thinking at all, 
there is a real danger of their pictures being circulated to the point 
where the photos do actually end up in the possession of sexual 
predators.  The way the laws are currently written, they also face 
the very real possibility of having charges filed against them.  Of 
course we want to protect our children from both of these things but 
as law Professor Amy Adler at New York University, points out, child 
pornography laws are about protecting children from pedophiles.  She 
goes on to say "while sexting is bad judgment, it's simply not what 
the Supreme Court had in mind when it crafted the child pornography 
law. It just doesn't make sense that in a lot of the sexting 
situations, the pornographer and the victim are one and the same 
person."  The legal director of the Pennsylvania American Civil 
Liberties Union, Witold Walczak thinks that sexting should be an 
education issue.  Saying that, "No one disputes that sexting can have 
very bad consequences, and no parent wants kids sending out naked 
images. But if you've got thousands of kids engaging in this, are you 
going to criminalize all of them?"