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Saturday, March 20, 2010
Ind. Law - "Rethinking Sex Offender Laws for Teenage Texting"
That is the headline of a good story today in the NY Times, reported by Tamar Lewin. Some quotes from the lengthy story:
In most states, teenagers who send or receive sexually explicit photographs by cellphone or computer — known as “sexting” — have risked felony child pornography charges and being listed on a sex offender registry for decades to come.Indiana was one of these 14 states. But the legislation with the sexting language, SEA 224, was amended and passed instead as a sexting study committee bill. (it also includes the "Wallace" provisions.)But there is growing consensus among lawyers and legislators that the child pornography laws are too blunt an instrument to deal with an adolescent cyberculture in which all kinds of sexual pictures circulate on sites like MySpace and Facebook.
Last year, Nebraska, Utah and Vermont changed their laws to reduce penalties for teenagers who engage in such activities, and this year, according to the National Council on State Legislatures, 14 more states are considering legislation that would treat young people who engage in sexting differently from adult pornographers and sexual predators.
And on Wednesday, the first federal appellate opinion in a sexting case recognized that a prosecutor had gone too far in trying to enforce adult moral standards.
The opinion upheld a block on a district attorney who threatened to bring child pornography charges against girls whose pictures showing themselves scantily dressed appeared on classmates’ cellphones.
Re the "first federal appellate opinion in a sexting case," see this ILB entry from March 18, 2010, headed "3rd Circuit declines to address whether 'sexting' was protected by free speech law."
Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 20, 2010 08:30 PM
Posted to Indiana Law