Quote:
Teenager Charged With Child Pornography
POSTED: 1:34 p.m. EST March 27, 2004
Latrobe, Pa. -- --
A Westmoreland County teenager is accused of distributing child pornography after police say she took sexually explicit pictures of herself and posted them on the Internet.
State police in Greensburg say the 15-year-old Latrobe girl sent pictures of herself to people she met in chat rooms.
Police have seized her computer and are trying to determine who received the photos.
The girl is charged with possession and dissemination of child pornography.
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http://www.wpxi.com/news/2954803/detail.html
No, I'm not advocating that this should be allowed. However, I am familiar with criminal justice and I think that charging this teenager with a felony is over-zealous. On one hand the law is there to protect kids from exploitation -children are not viewed as capable of making informed decisions on their own behalf. On the other hand the law is saying that this child made a decision to which she was accountable.
It reminds me of my own juvenile delinquency days when certain friends of mine were charged with "Minor in Possession of Alchohol" -and then prosecuted by the courts as an Adult.