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Attorney Larry Walters: Some rational comments on sexting
by Amy Hasinoff:
Some excellent quotations from attorney Larry Walters in this in-depth interview: When Sex and Cell Phones Collide: Inside the Prosecution of a Teen Sexting Case, touching on a number of key points absent in most mainstream media coverage of sexting:
1. Sexting is normal for teens. It’s not a trend, a plague, a disease, or a shocking deviant act.
The idea that teens and kids would be creating child pornography themselves and distributing it by cell phone was never contemplated at the time [child pornography] laws were originally passed. Now, with the influx of technology, we have kids doing things that they were not doing before – creating content, creating pictures, and sending pictures – and, frankly, allowing that technology to be a part of their lives to the extent where it’s even a part of their sex lives. Kids in our current culture allow technology to infiltrate everything they do. They express themselves, whether it’s anger, love, hate, or intimacy, through technology.
2. Teens have few legal rights and protections, especially in schools.
Students are losing constitutional rights – the right to privacy and their expectation of privacy on school grounds. Their cell phones are getting seized more often and inspected, and these pictures are being found. School officials think nothing of saying, “Give me that cell phone,” and paging through it. The courts aren’t doing much about it. Every once in a while you’ll have a brave judge that will stand up and say, “That’s wrong.” The information is coming to light more often as those constitutional rights are being whittled away.
3. Charging a teen with producing child pornography is unnecessary and unfair, even if you want to use the legal system to address a case of nonconsensual sexting.
A lot of this is a problem with prosecutorial discretion and simple humanity. There are statutes like disorderly conduct, harassment, and stalking – catch-all provisions that police officers and prosecutors always use when they don’t what to charge somebody with when there’s a new behavior at issue. There’s an annoying communication law in Florida. Certainly, there are numerous other options out there for law enforcement.
4. Teens are expected to meet unrealistic ideals for sexual behavior.
I think we’re holding kids to a higher standard for similar behavior than we do adults. When adults send pictures of themselves engaged in sexual activity to each other – a common thing – there’s no crime committed, it’s commonplace, it’s enjoyable and everybody goes on. Kids do exactly the same thing with other kids – they have the same desires and the same erotic feelings – but they’re held to a higher standard. All of a sudden, it’s this horrible crime. It strikes me as odd that we’re holding kids to a higher standard than adults.
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Posted in: Commentary by SoulRiser on January 18, 2010 @ 3:20 PMTags: Privacy, Society, Youth Rights
3 Responses to “Attorney Larry Walters: Some rational comments on sexting”
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larry walters, bravo,bravo,bravo, exellent view right on target...too bad your not involved in the susquenita situation...they could use your input and common sense..do a web search under "susquenita sexting" enough links of info to make the common person "vomit"...this story has gone national, the abuse of a protection law and power will stop, the wrongfull labeling of kids ,here and in other states will stop, the adults who contributed to this destruction will be held accountable for their actions.....once again larry walters we commmend you on your view...you would be a great addition on the coalition trian , which is now runnning"full speed ahead"!
wow five months goes by since the investigation was launched by the pa state police, against the susquenita high school staff memebers for viewing nude pics of their students....why so long????the child porn protection law is to protect kids from exploitation...intentional viewing,,,distribution,,,etc,,,etc,,..why were they being viewed?? they were already told by the students what was on their phones.....they knew this at 8am sept 24th 2009....why were parents and police called in hours later at end of school day???why were only 7 students contained and charged when it involved many many more,,,didnt want to cancel a big sporting event??? why did head principal resign and leave the district when investigation became public news???? why wont the school comment on their sick and twisted actions????where is the investigtion report to see if an adult was involved with the students???? why were the students blanket charged from a law doesnt apply to minors...why were charges on one of the students dropped? and the rest left to hang??why did the gutless attorneys for these kids drop the ball and fight fore these kids, when they knew they could win the fight that was so clearly wrong?? why did these attorneys take on these cases and collect retainer fees and stare at the floor when given the opportunity to speak before the judge for one last final plea and feed their clients to the wolves???? do these attorneys think its over and are in the clear ???once again why were the staff members viewing child pornography over and over again for hours before notification of police and parents?? why did one staff member physically demonstrate what a student was doing in photo???? why is this becoming one of the biggest cover ups in the public school system on the east coast,,,,where adults are going to skate free on felony crimes....we are approaching one year since this happened and chapter two is soon to begin!
I have been researching a few sexting cases, i will say this one rates at the top of absurdness of screwups. One thing in favor of these kids is the statute of limitations doesnt come into effect untill they reach the age of 18 yrs and they have until there 20th birthday to take legal federal action themselves.If i were one of these adults in this situation, i would be quite concerned,especially after reading these posts and other related stories. Larry Walters does raise eyebrows with common sense on this topic.