Academic

Sexting: Or Why I'm Grateful To Be Out of High School

By firstamendmentblogger

Tough to be a girl kid these days.

Its been reported that three teen-age girls in Pennsylvania narrowly avoided prosecution this week when a TRO was issued against the prosecutor who threatened to pursue child pornography charges against them.   The basis of the charges stem from cell phone pics the girls took of themselves that, without their consent, wound up on cell phones belonging to a number of other students in their school district.   All together, the pictures reportedly featured "a teen-age girl in a bathing suit," two 13 year olds wearing an "opaque bra" and another girl emerging from the shower with a towel tied around her waist. 

Among the many First Amendment issues wrapped up in "sexting" prosecutions like these, one is the simple question of whether the pictures themselves qualify as obscenity or, as is alleged here, "child pornography."  In this case, when the parents of one of the girls asked the prosecutor how that could be, he said it was because the girls were posing "provocatively."  

I have another question though.  If the facts as reported are true, why were these three girls targeted for prosecution when the bigger problem lies with the kids who got hold of the pictures and put them on public display?  The report suggests that charges might ultimately be brought against them too, and that might be a good thing.  But the perverse social pressures that have young girls sexualizing themselves won't be solved by turning them into criminals. 

-Kathleen Bergin

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on April 03, 2009 (boomark / email).