At a recent slumber party, three 13-year-old girls stripped down to their bras and panties and began snapping candids of each other with their cell phones. The giggling girls then sent the photos to some of their classmates. The teens thought it was just harmless, innocent fun. Local law enforcement thought it was child pornography. Now the girls, and those who received the photos, face the prospect of serious jail time and registering as sex offenders under Megan’s Law. While sexting–the practice of sending erotic images and messages via cell phone–has become shockingly popular among teens (1 in 5 admit to sexting), law enforcement agencies are scratching their heads as to whether current child pornography laws should be enforced against children like these three girls and their classmates, particularly when the children are the very ones who the law seeks to protect. In a curious twist, in this unusual criminal case the child victims are also the perpetrators.
Across the country, law enforcement and state legislators fear that technology is outpacing current child pornography laws which could easily classify this scenario as a felony involving the possession or dissemination of lewdness involving a minor. This past March, the Utah Legislature passed lighter penalties for sexting, reducing it from a felony to a misdemeanor. In Vermont where possession of nude photos of persons under the age of 18 is a felony, legislators are considering making sexting legal.
Tilting the Scales in Your Favor: As states like Utah and Vermont contemplate new laws, existing laws will cause law enforcement officers difficulty in discerning the difference between slumber party antics and true child pornography. Parents of teens should warn their children that sexting is not merely high tech flirting and that it may result in jail time and the lifetime label of “sex offender”. Even if law enforcement officers in Texas do not regard the slumber party antics as worthy of criminal prosecution, racy images once posted to the internet are difficult to retrieve and can circulate on the internet for a very long time. Parents should counsel their teens that if someone sends their teen a picture, it is best to immediately delete the photo. As always, seek legal counsel if your teen is being investigated for, or has been charged with, a crime.