little_tippler

This is a really strange situation in my opinion, that has been happening over the past year or so, in a few different places in the US.

Teens posting or emailing nude photos of themselves on myspace or to friends are being prosecuted on child porn charges, which in some cases can lead to having to register as a sex offender and even jail time.

To me this seems like a perversion of the law. Kids cannot take photos of their naked body, it's illegal in the US. So, wait, I can't take photos of myself naked if I'm underage? Seems weird but I can see why the prohibition - to stop those photos getting into public view and being used as child porn. This seems to me to be a result of the over-sexualization of teens that we have spoken about recently in shesus' thread 'Warped sense of sexy'. What are they supposed to do? The media and indeed peers constantly throw that message at them. Teens are keen to sexually explore themselves and others sooner than ever, though they are probably at an age where mentally and emotionally they do not have the understanding or maturity to cope with that reality or its consequences.

But is the solution to prosecute minors for child porn over their own photos? I tend to think that is not the answer.

Whatever this is, it's a pretty warped way to try and control when and how teens become sexual beings, and an exaggeration of the consequences that should be brought upon these youngsters for these actions. Society as a whole has a responsibility for this behaviour. Can we really blame teens for copying what they see, read and hear on TV, the internet, and other media?

Somewhere along the way, the parents, and the schools, are dramatically failing in their job to educate young kids. The silence on many more 'extreme' sexual issues (that are now becoming mainstream it seems) that is still prevalent between teens and those supposed to be their main source of advice and, on the other side, the enormous amount of information available through other media, appears to produce a distortion in kids minds on how best to address the reality of becoming a sexual being that occurs in the teenage years.

Here are a couple more links on this topic:

Naked Photos, E-Mail Get Teens in Trouble

‘Sexting’ surprise: Teens face child porn charges

Police blotter: Teens prosecuted for racy photos

I would love to be able to say there is one, good, solution to solving this problem. But I can't pretend this is simple to work out in my head. It's not. I think the solution lies in possibly educating kids who are 'caught' doing this, specifically targeting this behaviour. As for how to prevent it...I'd like to say parenting but it's too easy to point a finger without knowing the circumstances. Someone could have the most caring and attentive parents in the world and this could still happen. Don't you think?

__________________
Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.

Fernando Pessoa, 1918