Teenage Girl charged with Child Pornography for exploiting self
 

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.

if the pictures are of herself I am not sure what legal right the state has regarding this.

And the girl sounds like she needs counselling, not felony charges, how on EARTH is sending to jail going to help?

two kids in the boston area were suspended from school for this...
while on a school bus one girl (14) stuck her hand down a boy's (14) pants - basically "i'll show you mine if you show me yours..."

this follows a story of maybe a year or so ago where a girl (also 14 - i think) performed fellatio on a simarly aged boy on a school bus... they too were suspended...

in both these two cases no charges were filed and the two were remanded to counseling...

this falls in the lap of the parents not the courts...

what the courts should do is find out who recieved the pix and whethre they were solicited from her by the recipient(s)

Actually, that would be in the lap of the boy whose pants she stuck her hand down, if you want to get technical...

(ok, that was bad)

Not as bad as asking, "Pics?"

Logically, it makes no sense.

In otherwords, they are charging her with the felony crime of exploiting a child (which is done by an adult), therefore she is an adult.

But if she is an adult, then the pictures are not of a child.

I don't see how you can exploit yourself, and being puhished for it is just silly. I'd be more interested in the people she sent them to. And yea, her parents need to have a long talk with her, and maybe some counseling as well.

Welcome to the zero tolerance world.

Oh and legally PA can charge her with the felony, thanks to this little gem:

http://www.cdt.org/speech/pennwebblo...00penn7330.pdf

She doesn't have to be an adult to be charged with the crime either.

What if some of the recipents were under the age of 15? Would they get in trouble for having child pornography on their computers, despite being younger then the "exploited" teenager?

I think the the investigation is required to find out who the receipients are. It is likely that they will be charged if they are adult aged. Also, was she enticed into sending photos of herself? i.e. if an adult was to solicit an underage to send photos of herself then he'll be arrested & charged.

But I agree that the girl needs counselling.

I can understand their thinking that they may be justified in accusing her of trafficing/disseminating, but it's not illegal to have pictures of yourself in your house. That's bullshit.

I can see it now:
"35 houses were raided today on suspicion of the display of family portraits on hearth mantles."

[/joke on] My gosh. Kids these days, so eager to be whores. Damn MTV!!!! [/joke off]

This girl needs some serious help, I just hope that her pics doesn't accidently made it to the titties board under "I'm losing my faith in the younger generation of girls very fast here. ." Oh the horror!!!

Just goes to show you that cameras and stupid girls do not mix.

Ridiculous. She did what she wanted to do. Counseling-yes, felony-not on your life.

I think it's outrageous that she is being charged with a crime. I hate the law. I also don't think she needs counseling. Girls in ancient greece married at like 14. I mean girls go through puberty, and their bodies start telling them to go have sex. I don't think there is anything morally wrong with a 15 year old girl showing nude pictures of herself to people if she is smart about it.

You can't compare ancient times and with modern times, its like apples and oranges. Why not ask "They wear loin clothes back in the days, why not now?" Because time changes and morals change to fit with the changing times.

So what, she should listen to her body and have sex?

I'm not sure about the morally wrongness, but I'm damn sure she ain't smart about showing nudes pictures of herself to strange perverts online.

Am I the only one who finds this delicious irony hilarious ?

I mean the courts are effetively saying "we will prosecute you as an adult, even if the crime we are prosecuting you for implies that you are not".

Just think, some ambulace chasing lawyer will probably use that as the defence ;)

I wouldn't be so quick to judge. Did these "perverts" even know she was 15? Did she know their ages? Are all people that look at porn on-line ,bad people? Are all people that post nude pictures on-line, bad people? What does that make us? I need more facts before I am willing to "pass judgement."

I do, however, agree that this is an issue the family needs to address and that may call for counseling.

Guess I'm in the minority, but I don't see why she needs counselling, just based on what she did. I do remember what I was like when I was her age, raging hormones and all. If she was 3 years older, she could be posting pictures of herself in Tilted Exhibition, and none of you would be crying "counselling!"

The way I see it, these 14-year-olds giving each other blowjobs are the fruit and product of our society, as well as the natural process of coming of age. Sexually active or curious 14-year-olds aren't as uncommon as they perhaps used to be, but they're not what I'd consider a huge problem, either. I see a lot of people - and I don't mean here at the TFP - suggesting counselling as a solution to most problems, especially with teenagers. While I'll admit that some of them could use it - as could quite a few adults - I think we're a bit too quick to resort to psychotherapy. In some cases it is warranted, but in some it all only helps build a society where a mother sends her son to a therapist because she caught him jacking off - and no one bats an eye.

Posting nude pics of herself online? This girl could use an injection of common sense, perhaps, but therapy? Give me a break.

I'm not making any judgement and/or did I say they are bad people. I just said "strange perverts." Are they strangers? Yes. Are they perverts? I assume they are. Are all perverts necessarily bad people? No.

I agree with Prince.

I'm also not even too bothered by 14 year olds giving each other hand jobs (or BJ's).

I guess I should qualify that with I'm less bothered by that than if the girl had, say, been caught giving a BJ to the bus driver!

Anyway, I don't think teenage sex is anything that's new to our society or part of social morays degenerating. I thought that was a pretty common age to start playing around--the shocking part, to me, is that the average age is dropping to middle school and below!

But I digress, the "counseling" I suggest is sex education. Other than that, a bit of common sense from the family as to the dangers lurking on-line. Short of not knowing safe sex or hex, teenage nudie banter isn't blowing my sensibilities apart for some reason.

All that said (as if anyone's even reading this anymore :)), I think the prosecutor is using this as a scare and/or legal tactic to seize her property and track down the oglers.

First. I gotta agree that people scream "Counselling!" way too much. Once we've all gone to councelling, We're all going to turn into nazi-like drones.

This whole case is contradictory. I doubt she'll be charged with a felony. I also doubt anyone that recieved the pictures will get punished for her picture(s) alone, they could however be investigated.

On a side note, I don't think her age really mattered in HER decision to post her nude pictures. She could have been 15 or 25, she wanted to do it, so she did. I'd bet her only regret is getting caught.

edit: I just re-read the article, She may have had pictures of other children, she could be tried as an adult for that.

don't take pictures of your kids in the bathtub or video tape your kid's birth

If you sent photos of yourself, knowing it was a crime to do so, you are guilty of the charge, as assinine as it seems.

I used to use AIM and on AIM you can just send a picture without having it ask about the download (it was the default setting). Imagine you are chatting with some girl, she sends you a picture of herself like the girl in question, and there is a record of that the police have now?

Even if you are cleared the papers will only run So-and-So arrested for possession of child pornography. Not the oh btw he was innocent.

They're trying to make a point. 15 year old girls should not be taking nude pictures and passing them around. They need to be held accountable as well. This way, they know they'll get in trouble just as well as the guy (or girl) viewing them will. It needs to go both ways. There needs to be punishment for the girls involved so there is incentive to not do it. This is the start of that punishment and an example needs to be set.

No where's the pictures of the ones that just turned 18? ;-)

Carnivore is monitoring this thread and your opinions will be held against you in a court of law.

Haha, yea people might as well stop.
I seriously believe there should be a panel of rational jury that are allowed to bend rules and stuff. If we had that, people wouldn't be sueing macdonalds for making them fat.

I screen my pics before posting:rolleyes:
Glad you liked the thread though.

I hardly think someone choosing to give out pictures of themselves nude to like aged peers is a crime in the eyes of anyone except parents who want to pretend their kids aren't sexual.
Kids have always done things like take pictures of each other in sexual positions and hook-up in middle school bathrooms. Hell, I did the latter in the early 90's when I was in midddle school on a regular basis.

oh crap... my sister just sent me vid of the kids in the bathtub.. good thing everything is still under the water :lol:

Just because she's being charged doesn't mean they won't be dropped. Cops don't have time to debate wrong and right; their job is to get arrests in and let the courts handle things. The charges will probably be dropped on the condition that she see help, and whoever recieved the pictures will probably be in for a world of hurt.

I think this is just an example of how law isn't perfect. Child porn laws are a good thing, and a couple of exceptional situations doesn't really warrant any kind of major change.

I agree.

I remember being 15 and being so horny i could have screamed.

All I thought about was getting laid and did everything in my 15 year old power to get laid. (It actually took another 2 years.)

But at 15, i definitely remember pulling off my pants with a few girls and vice versa.

A big so what else is new comes to mind.