5-18-2012 New Jersey:
New Jersey resident Allyson Pereira visits North Branford High School to share her nightmare in hopes other teens don't make the same mistakes.
“Has your whole town seen you naked? Mine has.” That was the shocking statement that got the attention of the 9th- and 10th-grade students at an assembly at North Branford High School last week.
Ally Pereira, a 22-year-old New Jersey resident, took center stage as a result of a column I wrote for North Branford Patch about bullying, it had been shared on a Facebook page called the Anti Bullying Coalition and Ally e-mailed me to tell me her story, which I shared in a subsequent column.
I brought her story to Principal Todd Stoeffler, who in turn shared it with the school’s Cyber Ally team. They all agreed that this was something students needed to hear.
At first glance she could have passed for a student, but within seconds of her opening statement, the auditorium was silenced as Ally explained how one impulsive decision turned into a nightmare. She had been a naïve 16-year-old whose long-term boyfriend had broken up with her. When he told her they could get back together if she texted a nude photo of herself, Ally believed him. She sent him a photo but did not get a reply.
He sent the photo with everyone on his contact list, and many of those recipients forwarded it, too. Within 24 hours it seemed like everyone had seen it. It was not long before the bullying started. Boys made fun of her saying she would never get another boyfriend now that everyone had seen her naked, girls bullied her because their boyfriends had seen it. She received death threats, her family were harassed, their house vandalized.
After she finished telling her story, Ally shared a video of an MTV documentary called A Thin Line; When Privates Go Public. The video combines interviews with Ally, her friends and family and facts and figures about “sexting.” They explain how there can be legal implications for anyone caught sending or even forwarding a text containing images of nudity of a minor.
One student asked Ally if her boyfriend was arrested and she said “No, because if I had him charged, he could have had me arrested, too, for sending it and I could have been charged with manufacturing child pornography.” Someone asked if she had ever spoken to him again and Ally answered “No, but about a year later, he sent me a text asking for another photo.” There was a gasp of shock from the audience. ..For the remainder of this story: by Doreen Currie
May 18, 2012
Sexting Scandal Victim Speaks Out
August 29, 2009
AZ- Seduced by 'sexting'
8-29-2009 Arizona:
Carol Crimmins of Tempe couldn't believe her eyes when she saw a picture of a topless female on her teenage son's cellphone, not after all the talks they'd had about that sort of thing.
Her son didn't know who had sent the picture, and he had the good sense not to forward it to anyone else.
This teenage foolishness of sending sexually explicit photos and racy messages, or "sexting," can have serious consequences. Across the country, lawmakers and law-enforcement agencies are grappling with what to do with kids who take naughty pictures of other teens with their cellphone cameras and send them to friends.
Technically, if the pictures are of minors that constitutes child pornography, even if they are taken by a minor. But clearly, a teenager with a cellphone camera isn't the same as an adult shooting frames of kids involved in sex acts.
The law is trying to catch up with the technology. Lawmakers in Vermont, Utah and Ohio are making sexting a misdemeanor instead of a felony when the cases involve teenagers, and as long as the sender voluntarily transmitted the image. That way, children caught up in this youthful fad don't wind up registered as sexual offenders.
Still, sexting is illegal and can get a child into a lot of trouble. In Arizona, there's no law specifically dealing with sexting, but Officer Luis Samudio, a spokesman for the Phoenix Police Department, says youngsters could face charges of child pornography, lewd and lascivious conduct and disseminating indecent materials to a minor.
A teenager in Allen County, Ind., is facing felony obscenity charges for allegedly sending a photo of his genitals to several female classmates. He's expected to receive probation and be ordered to get counseling.
In Ohio, a 15-year-old high-school girl who faced charges for sending racy cellphone photos of herself to classmates agreed to a curfew, loss of her cellphone and supervised Internet usage.
And in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, a judge ordered eight teens, ages 14 to 17, who were trading nude cellphone pictures of themselves to perform community service and to ask peers whether they knew sexting was a crime. The eight teens surveyed 225 teens; just 31 knew.
Young people have been taking sexually provocative pictures since the Polaroid. What's different now is that the images can be transmitted at lightning speed via cellphones and e-mail, leaving youngsters vulnerable to humiliation on a huge scale.
The pictures can fall into the hands of pedophiles, Samudio says, turning an unwitting 14-year-old into an Internet child-pornography star. Of the 2,100 children the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children has identified as victims of online porn, one-fourth sent the initial images themselves.
One in five teens has sent or received sexually suggestive, nude or nearly nude photos through cellphone text messages or e-mail, according to an April survey of 655 teens ages 13 to 18 by the market research firm Harris Interactive for the center for missing children and Cox Communications.
Most of the teens surveyed sent the photos to girlfriends or boyfriends, but 11 percent sent them to people they didn't know personally.
Some question whether there really are that many instances or if the teens surveyed online were more likely to engage in that behavior because they spent so much time using the technology. Even if the numbers are a bit inflated, it's still enough to make parents wonder what's coming across their children's cellphones every time they hear that familiar ding.
Communication key
In January, a Gilbert mom learned from a school police officer that her 13-year-old daughter's cellphone contained a nude photo of a boy she liked. School officials had confiscated the girl's phone after she used it in class.
"I was horrified. My stomach was in knots," says the mom, who asked that her name not be published. Then she saw text messages from the boy asking her daughter to send him nude pictures of herself. She had refused, but he was persistent: "I sent you one. Don't you like me?"
"How long before she would have caved in?" her mother asks. "So many girls just want to be liked and accepted."
She encourages parents to talk with their children early on about sexting.
"If your child is old enough to have a phone, your child is old enough to have this conversation," agrees Gina Durbin, director of student-support services in the Cave Creek Unified School District. She conducts a workshop for parents each year about ways to use technology safely.
Durbin reminds parents why they got their kids cellphones in the first place: so they can reach their parents at any time or in emergencies, not so they can text their friends or take pictures.
Monitor your children's cellphones by regularly checking messages, pictures and games, Durbin recommends. The phone belongs to the parents, and if anything inappropriate is transmitted on it, it will be the grown-ups the police come looking for if it becomes a criminal matter.
Let your kids blame you for not being able to send or receive inappropriate material. They can tell their friends, "My parents are crazy. They read my text messages because their own lives are so boring."
For a small fee, Durbin says, parents can get an e-mail from most phone carriers of the text messages sent and received. If your kids know you will be randomly checking, they'll keep their conversations in check.
To stave off problems, Durbin suggests buying kids phones with no camera or asking your carrier to turn off the camera function. Besides sending inappropriate pictures, students also have used cellphone cameras to cheat on tests and take unflattering pictures of classmates.
When to worry
Crimmins, the Tempe mother, had talked about appropriate use of cellphones to the point that her boys, ages 12, 14 and 16, were rolling their eyes. They knew not to respond if they got a call or message from someone they didn't know. And they knew their mother would randomly ask for their phones and scan their text messages, pictures and games.
Sure, they could delete messages, but Crimmins told them, "Guys, if you're deleting them, it implies to me that something is going on you don't want me to know."
There are a lot of things a guy doesn't want his mom to know, like how many times he text-messages his girlfriend just to say "I love you."
When Crimmins came across the topless photo, she talked to all of her boys, telling them, "This is basically porn through texting" and is degrading to women.
The shot was a dark and unclear photo of a female's breasts. It could have been a picture of a picture. It was sent from a restricted number. Her sons said they didn't know who sent it. She explained that it meant that they had no idea who the person was, her age, who took the photo and whether it had been taken with that person's knowledge.
"The point was, they have to recognize that it is inappropriate material, and their moral values have to say, 'This is not OK,' " says Crimmins, who teaches at Scottsdale Community College.
She tells parents not to freak out if they find a picture or two on their kids' phones. This generation's digital pictures may be akin to previous generations' girlie magazines.
"It's like finding the Playboy under the bed. One picture is not damning," Crimmins says. But parents should worry if their kids have a collection of photos or are taking or sending them.
Often, the pictures are taken as pranks. Durbin says parents should tell their children to lock their phones when not in use and not to loan them to anyone. In 2007, a 12-year-old girl at Sonoran Trails Middle School in Cave Creek faced criminal charges after she snapped a lewd photo of herself using a classmate's cellphone and sent the image to other students as a prank. She was not prosecuted, but she was suspended from school.
Why do kids do it? It's hard to know for sure, Durbin says: "Is it because they want to fit in? Do they do it because they want someone to like them?"
Kids don't think about long-term consequences, says Monica Vila, a Westchester, N.Y., mom behind TheOnlineMom.com, a resource for parents about technology and kids: "We need to talk to kids about the use of images and how long-lasting, far-reaching and permanent they are online."
Even more important, parents need to talk to their children about respecting their bodies and their privacy, because kids send out these intimate pictures with utter faith.
"They're so trusting," Durbin says. "They think, 'He won't show anyone. He loves me.' " ..Source.. by Karina Bland
August 2, 2009
PA- Should "sexting" be a criminal act? Part IV
Part-III
8-2-2009 Pennsylvania:
Pennsylvania does not have any statutes that specifically deal with the issue of teen sexting, nor are there any bills on it currently pending before the state legislature. Unlike Pennsylvania, however, its sister state, New Jersey is attempting to address the problem. Recently, legislation has been introduced to the State Assembly , that if passed, would create a diversionary program for teens who are criminally charged with the practice.
Under the proposed program, any teen who is accepted into and successfully completes it would avoid criminal prosecution.To be eligible for the program, the teen would have to be a first time offender who was unaware that the act was a criminal offense and have had no intention to commit one. The teen must also be one who would be harmed by the imposition of criminal penalties and one likely to be deterred from engaging in the act in the future.
The educational portion of the program would provide the teen with information concerning the legal and non-legal consequences of sharing the sexually suggestive materials and how the unique nature of doing so over the internet can have long term and lasting effects on their life and employment prospects. It would also emphasize the connection between sharing the materials and cyberspace bullying.
If passed, the law would take effect in seven months and would de-criminalize sexting for a least a portion of those New Jersey teens that engage in the practice. Whether or not the legislation would be effective in its other purposes, to educate the teens on the consequences, both legal and non-legal of transmitting non-provocative nude photos over the internet and to sensitive teens about cyber bullying remains to be seen. However, having a diversionary program like this is better than the alternative incongruous consequence of seeing underage children convicted of child pornography.
Interestingly enough, the diversionary program proposed by New Jersey lawmakers is strikingly similar to the pretrial program proposed to the defendants by DA George Skumanick in the Wyoming County, Pennsylvania case. Perhaps Pennsylvania legislators should follow New Jersey's example and codify the program rather than leave the proposing of such up to individual DA's like Skumanick. Whatever Pennsylvania lawmakers choose to do, however, their efforts to halt sexting practices may fail. As federal Judge Munley seemed to indicate in his opinion in the Wyoming, County case, transmitting non-provocative nude pictures of oneself may be protected by the First Amendment.
..Source.. by Rosanne O'MalleyJuly 28, 2009
PA- Should "sexting" be a criminal act? Part III
See also: Part-I Part-II
7-28-2009 Pennsylvania:
US District Judge James Munley in the Wyoming County, Pennsylvania case did not specifically address the illegality of sexting in general. His decision was based on an individual situation and a set of facts as it pertained to the Pennsylvania child pornography law. What is clear from reading his opinion is that further attempts to prosecute teens under the pornography law where the nude photos are not provocative will probably be futile. The state legislature will have to act to specifically address the issue.
To determine if the taking and sending of non-provocative nude photos of themselves by teens should be a crime, it is necessary to look at the prevalence of and the reasons behind the phenomena. Between September, 2008 and October, 2008, The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy conducted an online survey on sexting practices of teens (ages 13-19) and young adults (ages 20-26). Of the teens surveyed, 20% overall have sent nude or semi-nude photos or videos of themselves electronically. Most of these teens, 75% of all those surveyed, recognize that it is a potentially dangerous practice, yet they continue to do it any way. The photos are sent essentially to people they know, like a boyfriend or girlfriend, or to someone they want to "hook-up with". The reasons the respondents gave for sending the photos include "pressure" from others, to be "funny or flirtatious" , "as a joke," or to "feel sexy."
Although more research on the phenomena needs to be done, The National Campaign survey seems to indicate that the actual number of teens, only 20%, engaging in the practice is small.Furthermore, the reasons given for the posting of the nude photos are not those of adults who do so to abuse and exploit children. Yet the fact remains that the trend, if it continues and becomes more widespread, can be potentially dangerous to Pennsylvania teens. Current law does not adequately address the situation, so the question remains, what should the legislature do to meet this potential danger? ..Source.. by Rosanne O'Malley
July 25, 2009
Should "sexting" be a criminal act? Part II
See Part I
7-25-2009 National:
Does Pennsylvania's child pornography laws prohibit sexting?
There is currently no Pennsylvania law which prohibits sexting. When District Attorney George Skumanick charged the Wyoming County teens, he did so under a Pennsylvania criminal law dealing with child pornography. The statute, 18 Pa. C. S. Section 6312 states, among other things, "anyone who knowingly photographs, videotapes or depicts on a computer or films a child under the age of 18 engaging in a prohibited sexual act ... is guilty of a felony of the second degree."
An adult convicted under this statute could face up to ten years imprisonment and registration as a sexual offender under Pennsylvania's Megan's Law. As the female teenagers involved in the Wyoming County case were under 18 years of age, if convicted of this law they would have been subjected to juvenile court jurisdiction and whatever form of supervision, from completely secure confinement to any lesser degree like probation, and treatment, such as sex offender counseling, until, if the court deemed necessary they reached the age of 21.
The minor girls and their parents refused to acquiesce to the District Attorney's offer to withdraw the charges if they submitted to a "re-education program" because they did not believe the child pornography law had been violated by the girls actions. To back up their beliefs, they filed a suit in federal court asking that the DA be enjoined from prosecuting the teens.
US District Court Judge James Munley sided with the teenagers and their families and granted their request for a restraining order prohibiting the criminal prosecution. In doing so, the judge stated that the teens argument that the pictures in question did not show sexual activity and therefore not prohibited by the PA statute was reasonable.Posing in the nude for photos in a manner that was not "provocative" was not a violation of the Pennsylvania law and was a protected act under the First Amendment. ..Source.. by Rosanne O'Malley
July 24, 2009
Should "sexting" be a criminal act?
7-24-2009 National:
"Sexting" is one of the unfortunate byproducts of the current electronic era. Underage teens have submitted nude photographs of either themselves or others electronically, through email and instant messages via the internet.
Back in 2007, nude photos of teen star sensation Vanessa Hudgens made their rounds on the Net. The sweet faced High School Musical Star with the shy smile did hot herself publish the photos, but she did admit to having them taken, saying they were meant to be "private." The uproar over the photos lastest for days, but fortunately, Ms. Hudgens was able to weather the storm, thanks to the support of her family, friends, fans and her boyfriend, High School Musical co-star, Zac Efron.
Other sexting subjects have not been as lucky. An 18 year-old Ohio high school student committed suicide in 2008 after her ex-boyfriend passed around her nude photos. Other girls in the school, who had gotten hold of the pictures bullied her viciously. After appearing on a local television news program to discuss "sexting", and then attending a friend's funeral, the girl hung herself in her bedroom.
In January, 2009, six Pennsylvania teens were charged with felony child pornography crimes when three females sent nude photos of themselves to their three male friends. Wyoming County District Attorney George Skumanick threatened to prosecute the teens to the full extent of the law, including long terms of imprisonment and registration as sex offenders unless they attended a six month re-education program designed to teach the girls why their actions were wrong and what it means to be af girl in today's society. The three girl's and their families refused to accept the DA's offer. Instead, they filed suit in federal court seeking injunctive relief. The federal district judge ultimately issued a restraining order against the DA's office. ..Source.. by Rosanne O'Malley
June 1, 2009
Targeting Teens For Sexting
6-1-2009 National:
More Youngsters Are Transmitting Racy Photos Of Themselves Via Cell Phones And The Web, Running Afoul Of Child Porn Laws
(CBS) "Sexting" is the new term we apply when people electronically transmit racy, even nude photos of themselves to each other - not the best of ideas, and all the worse when those caught doing it are underage teens. Our Cover Story is reported by Rita Braver:
-----
When celebrity teenager Vanessa Hudgens took some racy photos with her cell phone and sent them to a boyfriend, the star of the "High School Musical" films never expected them to show up on the Internet.
For her the result was embarrassment and fodder for gossip columnists and blogs.
But legally, sexually explicit pictures of minors can be classified as child pornography.
And "sexting" among everyday teens can mean big trouble …
"My life's been, it's just so different, I can even say upside down," said Orlando teenager Phillip Alpert. "It's just so far out there, something I never expected."
For Alpert it all started when he was a senior in high school. He had a girlfriend for a couple of years who sent him some pictures of herself.
"She was not wearing clothes in the pictures," he told Braver.
"And then you two started not getting along so well?" she asked.
"Yeah," Alpert said. "It was a few months after that, that basically things just kind of fell apart with the two of us."
"What'd you do?"
"I took the pictures she had sent me, and like at 3:30 in the night, I just hit the select button for contacts, and I just hit 'send,' and I went back to bed."
It was a few days after his 18th birthday, so legally Albert was an adult. Three days later, the police came to his home:
"They arrested me," he told Braver "They wanted to charge with, I think, like 76 counts of sending child pornography, which just means jail or prison for the rest of my life, or I could plead to five years probation, which can't be cut short - no contact with the victim or her parents, no Internet."
But what Phillip Alpert did NOT realize is that he would also be listed on Florida's Registry of Sexual Offenders, now and for 20 years AFTER his probation ends
"I mean, the guilt that I felt after I realized that I did it was punishment enough," he said. "But now I'm on this list, this sex offender list, so everyone in my neighborhood, or anyone near me can look me up on the Internet. And people have come to my house and checked up on me to make sure I wasn't a violent threat to their children."
Alpert was thrown out of the local community college when officials there realized he was on the list.
Now 19, he recently lost his job, and has not found another. He's living on savings and help from his family.
"When you meet someone new, do you sort of realize, 'Okay, I'm gonna have to tell them about this?'" Braver asked.
"It's very difficult, 'cause not a lot of people wanna be friends with a sex offender kid anyways," he said. "Do you tell them right away and then hope that they don't, you know, run away from you?"
"Has that happened?"
"Yes," he said.
Civil liberties attorney Larry Walters, who did not handle Phillip Alpert's case originally, said he was "floored" when he read about what happened the young man, and is now trying to help free of charge.
"We're dealing with kids exchanging photos of themselves in sexually explicit positions, and that is in my view a social problem, just like teen sexual activity," Walters told Braver. "The criminal justice system is not the proper vehicle to deal with something like that."
He says it's a long shot, but he plans to file a motion asking that Phillip's sentence be amended so his name can be taken off the sex offender list.
Legislation is now pending in states like Vermont and Ohio to lesson penalties for sexting, and Utah recently changed the offense from a felony to a misdemeanor.
Walters says ALL states should decriminalize picture-sharing among teenagers:
"The punishment doesn't fit the crime in this case," Walters said. "What's happening is you're punishing these kids, and there are a lot of them throughout the United States now."
In fact, a recent survey shows that it's very common teenage behavior.
Bill Albert of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy said, "We found, surprisingly, that one in five teens, and one in three young adults, freely admitted that they have sexted these nude or semi-nude images on the Internet or sent them via their cell phone."
Albert said about the same number of boys and girls have posted nude photos of themselves.
And this is not just a phenomenon among older teens: Eleven percent of teenage girls age 13 to 16 have sexted.
And while 67% of teenagers believe sexting is dangerous, Albert doubts that they really grasp the long-term implications:
"You know, I'm not sure many young people understand that this is sort of a cyber-tatoo," he said. "Once you press 'send.' it is out of your hands, and it can be used in ways that are a complete surprise of you."
Mindful of the case of Jessica Logan, an Ohio teenager whose family says she killed herself after her former boyfriend allegedly forwarded nude photos she'd sent him, local communities like Springfield, Va., are calling meetings to warn about the dangers of sexting.
"These are good kids, they don't know what they are doing," said police officer Marc McDonald.
Girls here say they don't personally engage in sexting, but agree with the survey's findings that 85% of teens believe girls do it to get a guy's attention, and 47% say pressure from a guy is a reason girls send sexy photos and messages.
One girl, Carol, said, "They compliment you, but like after that, and after it spreads and everyone hears abut it, then everyone starts talking bad about you, then it all, like, goes down from there."
And in some places, it can go from bad … to worse.
In the small town of Tunkhannock, in Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, girls who posed for revealing pictures now face child pornography charges.
When officials at the local high school found cell phones with sexy photos, they called in George Skumanick, the local District Attorney.
"We have a duty to protect our children," Skumanick told Braver. "And if they're gonna do things that are criminal, just 'cause they're kids, that shouldn't make it not criminal."
He told the kids who owned the cell phones, and those identified in the photos, they would either face felony charges, or accept probation while they took an education course that would cost them $100 each.
"So basically, it was five sessions, just to get across the dangers of doing this, short-term and long-term," he said.
But not every family opted for the deal.
Fifteen-year-old Marissa Miller said she had never posed for a sexy photo, and her mother, Mary Jo, demanded to see what the prosecutor was talking about.
The photo was taken at a slumber party when Marissa was 12.
"And what are they wearing?" Braver asked.
"Bras, training bras, plain training bras," Miller said.
"What did you say to the D.A. when you saw this photo that he said was child porn?"
"I actually, my first reaction was complete relief," she said. "I tossed it and said, 'Oh, Marissa!' My husband, my ex-husband said, 'What's wrong with this photo?' And he said she was posing provocatively."
Marissa refused to go to the class:
"Because it wasn't fair, I didn't do anything wrong," she said. "So why should I stand back and just let him tell us what to do?"
So the Millers and two other families contacted the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued in Federal court to stop the D.A. from bringing any charges. The case is now on appeal.
And if Skumanick wins, and the kids still won't take his course?
"We'll do what we need to do," said the District Attorney.
"You mean criminal charges?" Braver asked.
"We'll do what's appropriate, and what needs to done - I won't say more than that," Skumanick said. "Its an ongoing investigation at this point."
But Skumanick says he too believe the law should be changed for sexting by teenagers:
"The key thing is, if it's minor-to-minor, you know, then it should be a misdemeanor, yeah."
But there is one other point we should mention … Marissa is expecting a baby this summer.
"One of the things that is argued by a lot of people who are pushing these prosecutions is, well, when people see these sexy pictures, they are more apt to have sexual relations which will lead to teen pregnancy - what's your view of that?" Braver asked.
"I think most people who sent them probably already were doing things, their parents just aren't aware of what they're doing," Marissa said.
"I think that it's a little overkill to say that because of sexting you're gong to end up [with] teen pregnancy," said her mother.
Bill Albert, an expert on teen pregnancy, says anything that leads to what he calls a more "casual hook-up culture" IS a cause for concern.
"I don't think young people's moral compass has caught up with the race of technology," he said.
And he says, for MANY reasons, young people should think carefully before they press "send" … something 19-year-old Phillip Alpert understands all too well.
"This part of my life is ruined," he said. "The college times, the high school times, the best times of my life, that's not for me. I just hope that later down the road, when I'm, you know, 30, 35, whatever, I have a nice job, a nice family and that this is all behind me." ..Source.. by Rita Braver
May 26, 2009
Prof: Kids 'sexting' isn't new behavior
5-26-2009 Global:
OTTAWA, May 26 (UPI) -- A Canadian social sciences professor says the uproar over youth sending sexually charged text messages, or "sexting," is overblown.
Speaking at the international Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences this week at Ottawa's Carleton University, Dr. Peter Cumming, an associate professor at York University and coordinator of its Children's Studies Program, said youth are doing what they've done all along using new technology.
Cumming said several cases in the United States have made the news when teenagers sent semi-nude pictures of themselves or others over cell phones.
"It would be very unlikely to see dozens of news stories announcing that some children we caught playing spin-the-bottle, or doctor, or strip poker," he said. "Yet many of the cases brought forward have been on the same level of innocence and experience as those activities."
He said the uproar about sexting is just the modern version of the outrage in the 1950s about the way Elvis Presley moved provocatively on stage.
"The big bad wolf right now is the Internet and cell phones with cameras," he said. "What I would say to anyone is to take a deep breath, think in context, and use common sense." ..News Source.. by UPI.com
April 25, 2009
GA- Should ’sexting’ be decriminalized?
4-25-2009 Georgia:
Commentary:Good news! Our courts are going after child pornographers with a vengeance, using technology like cell phones and social networking sites to locate and trap these heinous criminals and throw the book at them. The only glitch in this admirable fight for justice? The “scum” appear to be our own kids.
Youthful hormones and high-tech communication have dovetailed as of late, and “sexting” is the result — racy pics teens send each other via cell phone. Think this dangerous and vile behavior is part of an edgy subculture? A recent survey by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned pregnancy claims that 20 percent of our teens are involved in “sexting” activities. “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity,” Einstein once said, making me wonder if he saw this one coming.
I’m shocked by how widespread this activity has become and grateful to live in a community filled with adults who are “on it” in a big way, from academic and home life consequences to strict monitoring of teen behavior. Still, I’m more shocked by the way the law has swooped in, labeling young, impulsive teenagers child pornographers.
Really? That’s how we fix this? A boy in Texas is arrested on child pornography charges for simply having a racy photo on his phone. A 14-year-old New Jersey girl posts explicit pictures of herself on MySpace and could be forced to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law.
Even Maureen Kanka, Megan’s mother, is appalled. “This shouldn’t fall under Megan’s Law in any way, shape or form” the mother of the raped and murdered Megan Kanka declared, understanding that the MySpace exhibitionist needs help, not an avalanche of legal restrictions that will ruin her life forever.
Legislators in Vermont are trying to stop the madness, creating a bill that would remove the most serious legal consequences for “sexting” kids, such as a lifetime on the state’s Internet sex offender registry. Unfortunately, Vermont’s governor is disinclined to support such a bill, feeling that decisions about these charges should be left up to prosecutors.
Either Gov. Douglas hasn’t been reading the same stories I have, or he thinks the best way to deal with tech-crazed, impulsive teens is to brand them child pornographers and sex offenders. Makes me kind of wonder if our legal system has exceeded our humanity…
Should ’sexting’ be decriminalized?
Making young teens register as sex offenders is foolish, but decriminalization is not the solution — especially for those who pass along sexual images without consent. Let’s not ignore the most relevant question: is this new and exploding behavioral trend good, bad or neutral for those involved and the public at large?
Many must believe it is neutral, or even trivial, if they prefer no systematic consequences. But it is flat-out wrong and dangerous, often with life-impacting consequences for those involved. Especially for the female subjects who are left with their reputation in tatters and future in doubt, while the teen male traffickers get off scot free. As Vicki Courtney, author of “Five Conversations You Must Have With Your Daughter,” e-mailed me, “Girls are often convinced to do this for the guys to get their attention. Then in a break-up situation the guys often use it against them later. If you legalize sexting, the guys come out as the clear winners. The girls pay.”
One of the main reasons teens do this is that they don’t think it is a big deal. And how will they ever recognize that it is, without systemic consequences? Most of these same kids would never steal a DVD from a store. They may be tempted to, but they know it is wrong and that they’ll be caught and punished. Being 15 years old and stupid is no excuse.
Passing along someone else’s sexual image is far worse than stealing – yet Andy wants to make being “young and impulsive’” a legal free pass.
By contrast, Kari Glemaker, national director for iCare, pointed out in a recent interview that, “If you shoplift as a minor, there is still a consequence, just not as big as for an adult. Similarly, my county is looking to define sexting as a misdemeanor, without jail time if there is no other criminal background, possibly with a fine or community service, as well as awareness classes. To say there should be no legal consequence until age 18 is ludicrous.”
Andy and other parents agree that sexting is a big deal, but that we shouldn’t treat it as such. I say if we don’t treat it as such then teenagers will never realize it is a big deal. ..News Source.. by AJC Opinion
April 20, 2009
PA- A Lawyer, Some Teens and a Fight Over 'Sexting'
4-20-2009 Pennsylvania:
Revealing Images Sent Via Cellphones Prompt District Attorney to Offer Seminars but Threaten Felony Charges
The group of anxious parents crowded around District Attorney George Skumanick Jr. as he sat behind a table in a courtroom here and presented them with an ultimatum.
Photos of their semi-nude or scantily clad teenage daughters were stacked before him. Mr. Skumanick said the images had been discovered on cellphones confiscated at the local high school. They could either enlist their kids in an education program or have the teens face felony charges of child pornography. "We could have just arrested them but we didn't," said Mr. Skumanick in an interview.
The practice of teens taking naked photos of themselves and sending them to friends via cellphones, called "sexting," has alarmed parents, school officials and prosecutors nationwide, who fear the photos could end up on the Internet or in the hands of sexual predators. In a handful of cases, authorities have resorted to what one parent here called "the nuclear weapon of sex charges" -- child pornography.
But some legal experts say that here in Wyoming County, Pa., Mr. Skumanick has expanded the definition of sexting to such an extent he could be setting a dangerous precedent. He has threatened to charge kids who appeared in photos, but who didn't send them, as well as at least one girl who was photographed wearing a bathing suit. One of the accused is 11 years old.
"The whole tawdry episode seems to call for a little parental guidance and a pop-gun approach, not a Howitzer approach with a felony prosecution," said Louis Natali, a law professor at Temple University.
The sexting case in Tunkhannock is being closely tracked by juvenile-justice authorities. Many prosecutors say pornography laws should be used to protect children from adults, not from other children. In some cases, teens could end up listed on sex registries if convicted of child pornography. Others say that if charges are made, they should be limited to kids who actually distribute the photos.
Last month, the American Civil Liberties Union and a group of parents sued Mr. Skumanick in federal court in Scranton, Pa., alleging he violated the freedom-of-expression rights of three teenage girls. The ACLU also says that Mr. Skumanick is interfering with their parents' rights to raise them as they see fit.
Others say Mr. Skumanick is giving the teens an opportunity to avoid charges, which he could have filed immediately. Mr. Skumanick says he plans to appeal and says he didn't have to offer the education courses as a way out. "We thought we were being progressive."
(eAdvocate Post)
Some see Mr. Skumanick's alternative of offering classes as appealing. "You don't want to tag them with a scarlet letter for the rest of their life," says Shannon Edmonds, a staff attorney at the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, about charging teens with sex crimes.
Sexting came into the spotlight in this rural town, population 1,900, in October. A female student in the Tunkhannock High School cafeteria saw a boy scrolling through his cellphone and spotted a nude photo of herself, according to Mr. Skumanick. When the girl became upset, the school took the phone and called the police who, in turn, handed it to the district attorney's office.
Mr. Skumanick, 47, has been district attorney for the past 20 years here in his boyhood home. He says he was troubled by the photo, and what worried him most was an incident in Ohio where the mother of a teenager blamed sexting for her daughter's suicide last year. The girl, Jessica Logan, had sent nude photos of herself to her boyfriend and later hanged herself after being harassed by schoolmates when the boy allegedly sent the images to his friends.
As Mr. Skumanick contemplated what to do, the school turned up several other phones with nude or semi-nude photos of students. One showed an image of a 17-year-old girl in a towel wrapped just below her breasts. The girl, who asked not to be identified, said she sent the photo to her boyfriend about a year ago to make him jealous when she heard he was interested in another girl. "It was just stupid," she said in an interview.
Another confiscated phone had photos of a 17-year-old girl that she described in an interview as "semi-nude pictures, underwear and stuff like that." The girl, who took the photos herself, was debating whether to send them to her boyfriend when a teacher took the phone.
Mr. Skumanick thought he had enough evidence to charge them as juveniles on pornography violations -- not just for sending the photos, but for appearing in them, too.
With the help of school officials, Mr. Skumanick convened a series of assemblies, from fifth-graders to seniors. For the youngest students, he asked them to conjure how they would feel if their grandparents saw a photo of them that is "not nice." He warned the older students that sexting could damage their college or job prospects and could result in felony charges.
At one of the assemblies, a student interrupted and accused Mr. Skumanick of trying to ruin the teens' lives. "This isn't a debate," Mr. Skumanick told the senior boy, who was escorted out of the auditorium.
Mr. Skumanick also worked with area youth officials to offer the teens a class in lieu of charges. Patrick Rushton, education manager at the Wyoming County Victims Resource Center, culled course outlines for both boys and girls from educational Web sites on sexual harassment and violence. His curriculum included material on "what it means to be a girl in today's society" and a poem, "Phenomenal Women," by Maya Angelou.
On Feb. 5, with the course outline mostly in order, Mr. Skumanick sent a letter to parents of the students involved, saying their children had been "identified in a police investigation involving the possession and/or dissemination of child pornography." The letter summoned the parents to a Feb. 12 meeting at the Wyoming County Courthouse.
MaryJo Miller was dumbstruck when she opened her letter, which targeted her daughter, Marissa. Mr. Skumanick later told her he had a photo of Marissa that showed her from the waist up wearing a bra.
Marissa and her mother say the photo was snapped at a slumber party more than two years ago when Marissa was 12. Neither Marissa nor her mother knows how it got circulated but they don't see the photo as explicit. "It was like an old grandma bra. Nothing skimpy," says Marissa.
Marissa and her parents joined a group of about 50 others at the courthouse. Before showing the photos, Mr. Skumanick explained his offer to the crowd, answering one father's question affirmatively, that -- yes -- a girl in a bathing suit could be subjected to criminal charges because she was posed "provocatively."
Mr. Skumanick told them he could have simply charged the kids. Instead, he gave them two weeks to decide: take the class or face charges.
He then told the parents and teens to line up if they wanted to view the photos, which were printed out onto index cards. As the 17-year-old who took semi-nude self-portraits waited in line, she realized that Mr. Skumanick and other investigators had viewed the pictures. When the adults began to crowd around Mr. Skumanick, the 17-year-old worried they could see her photo and recalls she said, "I think the worst punishment is knowing that all you old guys saw me naked. I just think you guys are all just perverts."
Mr. Skumanick dismisses the criticism, saying that no one could see photos of teens who weren't their own children.
In the end, parents enrolled 14 teens in the course. But the parents of three other girls, including Marissa Miller, recruited the ACLU's help to sue Mr. Skumanick. At a hearing March 26, a federal judge indicated he thought the girls may be successful in their suit and temporarily blocked Mr. Skumanick from filing charges, pending a June hearing. ..News Source.. by DIONNE SEARCEY
UT- Help teen realize ramifications of 'sexting'
Question: Dear Dr. Scott, I recently got the shock of my ... life. I found out that my teenage daughter has been "sexting" her friends. We took her phone and internet privileges away, and explained to her how dangerous/ dumb/stupid it was of her to do that.
She doesn't realize the seriousness of this and acts as if we are over reacting. I don't think we are getting through.
She's basically a good kid, but this has been the most difficult time in our parent/child relationship. Worse yet, my spouse and I don't agree on the best approach. How can I help my teen realize how serious this is? When should I give her phone back? Would you let her come live with you?
Sincerely, Shocked ****less
Answer: Thanks for writing in. As much as I like kids, she can't come live with me.
However, if she gets any more out-of control, I have some great residential programs I can recommend to you. Maybe having a talk with her about that option would help.
(eAdvocate Post)
As society becomes increasingly permissive and personal accountability erodes, unhealthy behavior such as "sexting" is becoming more and more common. Some factors that contribute to such delinquency include an increased tolerance and even encouragement of sexual behaviors at younger ages, the sexualization of children, and the supposed anonymity provided by today's technology.
According to a nationwide survey by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, 20 percent of teens admit to participating in "sexting."
Browse MySpace and you'll quickly learn that to compete for attention as a young female, all you need to do is objectify yourself.
One of the cheapest, easiest ways for a young girl to get noticed is to behave sexually. Girls who do it get the instant gratification that sexual attention provides. Girls who hold themselves to a higher standard are sometimes left out.
So, girls kiss girls, they sext their boyfriends or strangers, they push their boobs into webcams, etc., ... all in order to win the attention of some high school jerk or, worse yet, some weirdo 40-something sexual predator on the other side of the Internet or phone line.
It's an epidemic of poor self-esteem; of girls selling out for attention, of young teens degrading themselves to the level of the lowest common denominator to compete for approval. Oh, and lest you think I'm letting the boys off the hook here, let me say that the epidemic of poor self-esteem goes hand in hand with an equally damaging epidemic of chronic disrespect for female teens by their male peers. Shame on those boys.
You might point out to your daughter some of the real-life consequences that teens are facing as a result of this self-indulgent, pathetic practice of visual prostitution. In the news in recent months, you'll see stories of sexting that include teens being prosecuted for possession of child pornography, girls whose reputations and social lives were ruined as a result of their nude pictures going public, and the shameful regret that many teens feel once they face the real embarrassment of what they've done in a stupid moment of impulsiveness.
Let her know that sexually objectifying someone like this can lead anywhere from simple mockery all the way up to rape. If she doesn't respect her body, who will?
I must tell you, however, that I am not confident you will be able to help her realize the seriousness of what she's doing. The seriousness is obvious to any rational thinker. However, teens are not rational thinkers.
You'll sooner teach your dog to translate hieroglyphics than successfully reason with certain teenagers. (My apologies to all you reasonable and mature teens. I know you're out there too.)
Instead, you need to appeal to her sense of dignity. Help her realize that she doesn't value herself.
She probably thinks she does, but with some persistence and empathy, you might be able to help her realize that she is desperate. Desperation is not attractive.
People that crave attention wear other people out. She'll be used sexually and then discarded. Ask her to consider which reputation she'd rather have; desperate girl or slut. At this rate, she'll likely get one if not both of those.
You have to be blunt if you have any chance of getting through.
Two more things: One, get your spouse on the same page. A united front is always critical in effective parenting.
Two, hold on to that phone long enough to make it hurt. I'd say at least a couple months if not a semester should pass before I'd even consider giving it back, and then only if her behavior has been excellent.
It's her job to convince you that she's trustworthy and responsible enough to have the phone. If you're not convinced, then she doesn't get the phone. If she does it again after she gets the phone back, the phone's gone for good. Keep an eye on her Internet use, and get to know her friends.
By the way, good job on your firm and swift response in the first place. Consistent structure like that is the sort of parenting that could put me out of business.
Take care, Dr. Scott.
Send questions to ask_drscott@hotmail.com. Dr. Scott is Dr. Scott Jakubowski, Ph.D., LMFT, owner/operator of Horizons Therapeutic Services. Call 867-8453 for an appointment. ..News Source.. by SCOTT JAKUBOWSKI • Ask Dr. Scott
