A Rochester boy is facing serious charges after forwarding nude pictures that a 15 year old girl sent to his cell phone. The 16 year old boy from the town of Webster is charged with Possessing a Sexual Performance of a Child under the age of 16, and Promoting a Sexual Performance of a Child under the age of 17 - both felonies. The boy could get time in jail and could be given sex offender status.
The charges were made after the parents of the 15 year old girl filed a complaint. There is even talk that the boy's friends who received the forwarded images could also face charges.
I understand the reasoning behind some charges being filed, but considering that this is a growing trend among teenagers, there need to be changes made in the legal system to properly address the problem. Its not fair to any of the kids involved that they are being charged under old generalized child pornography laws that were never intended to deal with this type of situation.
There should be separate laws to handle situations like this where all parties involved are underage. In my opinion, this should not even be a criminal case - this would be better settled in family court - especially given the young ages and associated sensitivity issues.
Officials have not ruled out charges against the victim either. To me, not only does that make the most sense, but she should receive the same punishment as the boys. She is, after all, the one who sent the illegal images in the first place. Too many times in situations like this the law goes after the male and the female is considered solely the victim. Was it wrong for the boy to send the pictures to his friends? Of course, but the girl is more guilty than innocent in this.
They both made mistakes here, and no one should have their life ruined over this unfortunate situation. It's bad enough the 16 year old boy's name has been published by the media. Parents need to keep better track of what their kids are doing with their phones, and lawmakers need to find a better way to deal with the growing "sexting" problem.
Becareful what you say there Nathan,
ReplyDelete"Too many times in situations like this the law goes after the male and the female is considered solely victim" is a vast generalization, and quite frankly untrue.
The majority of sexual assult cases never even get reported, and then of the cases that do, juries often side with the assailant, reasoning that the girl was "asking for it" by wearing that mini skirt, drinking to much, not going to a party with group.
However, I agree completely that the old child pronography laws can not be used in this case. Old laws have no way to accomodate for the complexity of Texting technology, let alone texting culture.
PS: I just RSSed to your blog, so you'll probably be seeing me comment more!!!
Becareful what you say there Nathan,
ReplyDelete"Too many times in situations like this the law goes after the male and the female is considered solely the victim." is a vast generalization, and frankly untrue.
The majority of sexual assult cases never even get reported, and then those that do the juries often blame the survior reasoning that "she was asking for it" by: wearing that mini skirt, drinking to much, or not going to the party with a group. This world, for the most part, is still a "boys club" they look out for eachother first.
However, I completely agree that the laws need to be change. Old child pornography laws do not accomodate the issues of texting technology, and certainly not texting culture.
PS: I just RSSed your blog, so you'll probably see me posting more comments!
Hey Brian, good to hear from you! Sorry I took so long to get post your comments...haven't been on in a while.
ReplyDeleteI think we are in a way talking about two different things, which is my fault for being vague when I said "situations like these". I really am only talking about minors electronically sending nude pictures of themselves to other minors, and doing so willingly, via cell phone, internet, or what have you.
I think you took it to include all forms of sexual abuse, including rape - things that actually lead to a trial. In those situations, I agree with you completely - the vast majority of incidents are never reported and there is a good 'ol boys club aspect at work in many cases.
My problem though has more to do with charges filed in these "sexting cases". I should have mentioned in my post that in many of these cases, the sender is charged eventually, and that males have been guilty of sending nude pics as well (although females seem to be the majority of senders in the cases reported by the media). But often it is the charges against those who receive the pic and forward it that are filed first, and reported first by the media.
This is more of a perception problem, one that the media is partly responsible for, where they focus on the boys on the receiving end more than the girl on the sending side. When the girl is mentioned, the emphasis is how she never wanted the photo to spread to others, rather than the fact that she indeed is guilty too by having sent it in the first place.
There just seems to be a double standard here. There is a similar issue when teachers have sex with their students. There is usually more public outrage when it is a male teacher/female student than a female teacher/male student. We'll save that though for a separate discussion. Let me know what you think!