Judicial System on Sexting

notice its all the puritanical values folks that want regulation to stop thier kids from sexting but they tend to also be the people screaming for less involvement by the govt in thier familiy affairs.
kids are horny today they were yesterday and will be tomorrow give them the means to act on it they will not news really just willfull ignorance on the part of parents who need to buy thier lil precious camera phones just like thier missalligned friends

This whole judicial sanctioning of sexting is completely hypocritical. They try a 16 year old as adult if the child commits a murder, but if a 16 year old wants to send nude photo of themselves, they cannot be charged as a child pornographer, but the one who receives the nude photo can?

There is something seriously wrong with the social norms and morals that demand such huge contradictions in judicial proceedings.

When the hell are people going to start practicing common sense instead of some procedural protocal BS with the LAW. It annoys me4 the law enforcement and the judicial system in general have no ability to think beyound some preestablished logical perameters.

I still fail to see how the punishment fits the crime... irregardless of how this young girl felt, this young man is stigmatized for his whole life as a sex offender..... Who really asks why when they see people on that list??

cztheday, I see several problems here.
1) Why did you immediately assumed that 18 yo young men has embarrassed someone else before by sexting?
2) The girl who sent her own picture is responsible for her own embarrassment. Everyone must be responsible for their actions.
3) Why did a vindictive adult female and the mother who was sexting out of sport related anger is not on the sex offender's database?

Reform may very well be needed...BUT I would submit that descriptions of legal cases in the media need to be taken with a massive grain of salt. The 18-year-old boy defends his conduct: "I was upset, immature, etc." Fine. But did you notice that there was no comment in the article from the girl? She might provide us with a much different picture -- one in which this was far from the first time this kid did this kind of thing, in which it was clearly premeditated and carefully planned, in which the "dozens" of people to whom the picture was sent included some carefully selected to cause her maximum embarrassment, pain and perhaps even long-term damage to her educational or career prospects. That is why judges and juries are required to hear BOTH sides before rendering a decision.

def looks like we need to make some chanes here

Remember when it was cool to xerox ones' own buttocks ?

bullpcp, I think this is a great idea! These tools will only work IF and When public overcomes ignorance. Prosecutors, lawyers and judges depend on wide spread ignorance to enforce bad laws. The public is in constant state of fear. Happy to be employed and activism appear to be mutually excusive. But the injustice affects each and every one it is simply a matter of time When the injustice will affect you or someone you know. Somehow we must come together and start chipping this problem a pebble at a time.

Court Watcher programs are all local efforts... It basically consists of sitting in a court room and taking notes on what happens..... Completely legal and allowed unless it is a confidential case....

regjoeschmo, I like your suggestion about court watchers. What is involved? How can I find out about this? It would be great to have a website where one may request a presence of a courtwatcher and courtwatchers can look up all the cases by zip code. Does anything like that exist?

jahbini: "Yes, Jury Nullification is one tool that the public has. Any others?"

Court watchers.....

And what about the corruption in the civil cases where there is no jury??

Jury Nullification is a solution to many of the problems of an over reaching and out of control legal system.

The ideals that formed our system are in my opinion the "best". Still the current system is not working based on those ideals. There are many different problems involved, but cases like the luzerne county scandal are widespread and largely ignored. We must stop giving financial incentives that promote corruption.

@jahbini:"the consequences of having a legal system that is unaccountable to any but it's own oversight is, well, what we got now."

And it may be a system with flaws but what's better to replace it? Even though our system is flawed, what system is better? I think none.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/27/earlyshow/main4896577.shtml

Life destroying stupidity in action^

This is ridiculous. Ah, this is Florida. I take that back. I am not even a little surprised.

Raping, molesting and stalking, abomanably horrible. Raping, molesting and stalking of a child, Is unforgivaealbey inhumane and terrifying as a society.

But an emotionally stupid boyfriend circulating pictures of his 16 year old girlfriend, which SHE TOK HERSELF!!, that is just stupid.

There is no black and white in real life, so why does it exist in the law?

OK, the child porn laws are badly botched up in our legal system, which doesn't work very well.

But that's the point: our legal system does not work very well. And in many areas: everything from parents rights, death-row scandals, corporate crime. You have all read or heard some weird story from Florida or Texas or YourTown, USA about some miscarriage of justice.

The legal system is not "democratic" -- in no sense of the word. But we repeatedly hear that the Democratic principles are the best and only ones to use to govern in an enlightened society. OK, Mr Jefferson, this is a fine mess you've gotten us into!

So, It's not democratic, and it doesn't work very well. Lets figure out how to fix our ailing legal system. Lets get enlightened.

Sexting is a bad thing and no one should send naked pictures to one another. Especially not teenagers. They should be punished for it, but not in this manner. Why? Because nothing good comes of it other than selfish need to see nudity.

That is terrible what he did and terrible that she was so stupid to take such a photo...but that was NOT child pornography. Not when they were dating. I hate that MEN are charged with statutory rape because they turn 18 and their girlfriends are still 17 or 16. So stupid. So incredibly retarded. No amount of lawyering would convince me otherwise.

treewolf, i presume you are refering to when someone takes a pic of themselves and spreads it.... the answer is no.... thre have been young girls prosecuted for sending pictures of themselves and put on sex offender registries....

Are self picture covered under some law?

A scourge from technology.

Hmm this one is a bit of a catch 22, But lets be clear. If a child takes pictures of them self naked and send them around- Punish them, If then said boyfriend then resends them around (thats stupid) - Punish them, BUT, i see no reason to charge them with CHILD porn charges,just simply Pornography charges.. You see that would be like charging two old men in a fight with elderly abuse. Get what im saying? Otherwise all of my "Bathtime " photos on facebook are child porn, but yet they are me? What do you guys think.. this really makes my brain hurt..

Why female adult is forgiven but a teen male is punished?

This needs to be addressed in an intelligent and appropriate manner. A 12 year old girl takes a photo of herself and get charged for child pornography when it is found later and she is 15. This is what we pay attorneys of the state to prosecute? This is how our government decides to spend their limited resources? Threatening teenagers with sex offender status to take 14 hours of sex offender education classes over photos they took of themselves. And why the double standard an 18 year old boy sends pictures of his 16 year old girlfriend in the heat of passion and gets put on a sex offender registry for 30 years while a mother maliciously distributes her daughters cheerleader rival's photos and get a $1000 dollar fine.

We need to seriously reconsider our policy on "child pornography" and get away from the knee jerk kill them, burn them alive, or brand them for life approach. The inconsistency of this is appalling. We can see sexually suggestive teenage pictures and video on prime time television, photos in magazine, or even in real life on the beach. This makes no sense whatsoever.

I think the punishment for "sexting" does not fit the crime. Our judicial system has it's priorities mixed up.

there needs to be punishment for the young man's actions but to be forever on such a list is a bit harsh... that was not what the list was intended for.... now the mother doing so to a "cheer" rival is also not in the way of "porn" but definately falls under harrassment and defemation......