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Sexting Leads to Child Porn Charges for Teens
At Susquenita High School, 15-miles outside of Harrisburg, Pa., eight students, ranging in age from 13 to 17, have learned a tough lesson about "sexting."
"Take a photograph of yourself or somebody else nude and send it to somebody else, you've committed the crime," said Perry County District Attorney Charles Chenot, who has prosecuted two sexting cases involving a total of 10 minors in the past year.
Chenot said he considers sexting a form of child pornography and wants kids to understand once those images are in someone else's hands they could wind up anywhere, even the Internet, possibly forever.
The teens at Susquenita High, who all knew each other, were accused last fall of using their cell phones to take, send, or receive nude photos of each other and in one case a short video of a oral sex. That resulted in a felony pornography charge for each minor.
"That was the only charge that really fits what they were doing," said Chenot. "What would have been the best thing to charge would be something that would have been a little less severe but would still draw these teenagers' attention to the wrongness of their acts."
Former U.S. Rep. Don Bailey, a Harrisburg civil rights attorney, is skeptical.
"Should they be crimes at all?" Bailey asked. "This is an over-zealous and inappropriate application of the criminal law."
Bailey represents the lone student from Susquenita who has not pleaded guilty to lesser charges, which would require him to take a class on victimization and perform community service. After successfully completing the so-called "diversionary program" and a period of probation, those juvenile conviction records would be expunged, according to Chenot.
"Are you going to stop kids from sexting that way?" Bailey asked. "Maybe you should try talking to mom and dad."
At the state capitol in Harrisburg, freshman Rep. Seth Grove, R-York County, agrees.
"My view is kids should not be held under the same laws as child predators," Grove said.
His bill, which would limit the punishment for sexting, has passed the state House Judiciary Committee and is due for a full floor vote this month.
"What we're trying to do is say: 'Let's not charge a felony, let's get a common sense law together that charges a misdemeanor,'" Grove said.
Pennsylvania's proposed reform is typical of the 20 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, that have considered new sexting laws for minors during the past two years. Five states -- Arizona, Nebraska, North Dakota, Utah and Vermont -- have already adopted changes.
"We need the appropriate punishment for the crime," Grove said.
But some advocates object that sexting, especially between teens who consent to exchange the images, is considered a crime in the first place.
"Why should we criminalize a kid for taking and possessing a photo of herself," said Marsha Levick, legal director of the non-profit Juvenile Law Center. "There is no problem that needs to be solved."
How schools find out about the nude photos has also provoked a debate with some child advocates complaining that schools are on shaky legal footing when it comes to searching students' cell phones.
A case in point pits a 19-year-old woman known as "NN" against Tunkhannock High School, her former school, near Scranton, Pa. She graduated last year.
"I took semi-nude pictures of myself and saved them into my phone," NN told CBS News in an exclusive interview.
When NN was still 17, a teacher confiscated her phone one morning because NN was talking on it before class. The school bans student cell phone usage on school grounds. Her principal, Gregory Ellsworth, then scrolled through the phone's digital photo album.
"He told me that he found explicit photos on my phone and that he sent it away to a crime lab," NN said. "I was really embarrassed, humiliated, because it was personal."
With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, NN sued the school last month seeking damages for invasion of privacy, accusing the school of violating her First Amendment right to free speech and her Fourth Amendment protection from illegal searches and seizure.
"A search of the device is akin to browsing through someone's address and appointment book, opening and reading letters sent by U.S. mail, and rummaging through a family photo album or viewing home videos," the lawsuit says.
Ellsworth had no comment. Michael Levin, an attorney for the school district, said, "I don't think any school district should tolerate kids bringing nude photos to school whether they be in electronic or paper format." Levin said Supreme Court rulings supported the school's actions.
Besides being suspended from school for three days, NN also faced child pornography charges from the Wyoming County District Attorney. To avoid them, she agreed to a deal, like seven of the Susquenita defendants, submitting to a five-week course on violence and victimization, meeting twice a week.
"If I was victimized, it was just like by my school," NN said. "I don't think by prosecuting them it's helping them at all."
But Chenot, the Perry County district attorney, said he is just trying to protect kids.
"Probably it's harmless when they take the pictures of each other and just share them between them, but the potential is there for there to be widespread distribution," said Chenot. "What we have here is a case where technology has gotten ahead of the laws."
Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/...in;contentBody
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Posted in: News on June 12, 2010 @ 12:22 AM
Tags: Privacy, School, Society, Stupid, Youth Rights
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CP laws were designed to PROTECT, not PUNISH!
this is a clear abuse of power,and abuse application of a child protection law,maybe thats why the gung hoe district attorney was shut down...what a disgrace to our public school and juvenile legal system....nothing like trying to obtain political gain with the wrongfull charging of a minor..do they charge teen moms for having sex too? dont think so...perfectly legal for an adult to sext with adult, now a teen does it and its they label them as a sex offender? wow!! teen sexting may be stupid, right,wrong,or considered normal,however there is no criminal offense in the state of pa for doing so..ohh so theres a nude pic willingly taken lets make it a child porn felony charge...lmfao... the criminals in these two cases were the adults in the handling of the "child pornography" viewing and displaying amongst the school staff members "all day long before contacting police and parents..i guess schools now idnetify their students by their private parts..what is this "angel beach high" months have gone by and still an ongoing police investigation against the school staff for the way it was handled? why?because their scope was to label kids not adults, kids are such easy targets, watch and see your legal system excuse the multiple viewing of child pornography...didint take long for police to drop their coffee and donuts to wronfully blanket charge the students, big bad crime fighters...which only now months later they have done "nothing".... dont want to label adults here...school officals never do anything wrong with their students, thats like saying a priest would never play with an alter boy !!...people your seeing the biggest screw up on the east coast with these two schools in pa...to contrue and apply a "nasty destructive"charge where it doesnt belong is abuse of power at the expense of kids...the adults who contributed to this, will be held accountable for their actions, "civil and criminal" !!
abuse of power, invasion of privacy , wrongfull charging ,destruction of human character , where does it end , wish i had this case , it would be my last..$$$$$$
where the hell is perry county,pa?i did some research on these two cases,and came to the conclusion that i cant believe it went this far!!im outraged that these adults in authoritive positions would be so stupid to pursue , without common sense and understanding knowelge of the law. these people should never be able to work in the educational and legal system again, not to mention what legal issues they may face !!when will schools focus on educating and police focus on real crime? power hungry people in authoritive positions= destruction !! this is just another reason why parents are placing their kids in cyber scholl type programs and removing them from the cess pool public schools that they are becoming!!!!
they pass laws for using cellphones while driving,,now to pass law on hey kid your pic could end up on the web, and you could be the victom..now that you are the victom your are also the sex offender. "only in america"and "you cant fix stupid" !!!!!!!!!!
im sure these puke school administraters,will be brought to justice and locked up where they belong...right mr chenott...
the more i read and research these two cases,, the more pissed i get..who would be so fucken stupid and power hungry enough to even wrongfully pursue such a charge...my god...this is insane....i see four groups of people that will have civil hell and possible jail time to pay... #1 susquenita staff members approx 5 staff members going threw phones looking at naked students...my god what the hell,,, these people better not still be in the educational system....they better be serving time by now...=invasion of privacy viewing child pornography etc etc, they make me want to puke!! # 2=pa state police,abuse of power,wrongfull blanket charging,etc,etc #3 perry county district attorney for abuse of power,,pursueing wrongfull charging of worst of all crimes.... guess we should throw the judge in there as well for even allowing this situation get this far....#4 ahhh and last, the criminal defense attorneys that fed these kids to the wolves and did nothing to defend..monopoly attorneys collect their money and pass go...they could of easily won this case...good job civil attorney Bailey..you won, charges dropped for one of students..the rest of you adults should be feeling like big stupid ass's, well because thats how the nation views you.!!i honestly see one hell of a long legal road ahead....very long for all the above mentioned..this is so fucked up know wonder this story made headlines in the UK !!
wow,all i can say is here is case where a civil suit is well deserved !! i hope these famliys win big and the adults end up jobless with a sore ass !! pun inteneded!!