Academic

Five Virginia teens are facing felony pornography charges for ?sexting.? This is happening far to?

By Radley Balko

Five Virginia teens are facing felony pornography charges for “sexting.”

This is happening far too often. I don’t quite comprehend the logic that says in order to protect minors from the dangerous consequences of sexting, we need to ruin their lives. Quote from the prosecutor:

It’s not clear what the consequences of the felony pornography charges might be but the chances of the students being convicted on the charges are as likely “as the moon coming crashing down tomorrow,” Commonwealth Attorney Cliff Hapgood said.

So why charge them in the first place?

I don’t think anyone would argue that it’s a good thing that minors are sending one another nude photos via cell phone. But the criminal justice system is a too clumsy a tool for this problem. In a lot of these cases, the most harmful part of sexting lies in what adult authorities do to these kids when they discover it.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on May 22, 2010 (boomark / email).