15 Year Old Girl Charged as Sex Offender

15 Year Old Girl Charged as Sex Offender

www.unitedliberty.org

A fifteen year old girl in Newark, OH faces being labelled a "sex offender" for sending naked cellphone photos of herself (a minor) to other minors. If convicted, she'll spend the next ten years on public registries, classed as a producer of child pornography. No word on what compensation she (as the victim of the crime) will be able to get from herself (as the perp).
According to Ohio law, 2907.323(A)(3) states anyone possessing material that shows a minor in a state of nudity is guilty of a fifth-degree felony. The violation also might qualify the juvenile as a Tier I sexual offender, which requires annual registration for a decade. The section of the law the girl, who is a foster child, was charged with allows parents or guardians to take photos of their unclothed children for a list of acceptable purposes but does not provide an exemption for the child themselves.

(visit the link for the full news article)


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Mod Edit: fixed link
[edit on 20/10/2008 by Badge01]



[edit on 20/10/2008 by Badge01]

A friend sent this to me and I gotta say, I'm not sure what to think about it. I mean, all the are there to convict this girl of a number of crimes. On the other hand, adolescent kids will be adolescent kids. I would take so much of a leap as to say this isn't that rare an occurrence, this girl just got caught. With that said, I think I agree with the charges.

Thought ATS'ers would have a lot to say about this one.
www.unitedliberty.org
(visit the link for the full news article)

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Mod Edit: fixed link

[edit on 20/10/2008 by Badge01]

Man.... I'm so torn, too...

On one hand, glad that this girl is learning that there are consequences to her actions... and better it come from a court than from some freak who'd exploit her, possibly rape and/or murder her.

On the other... well, 15 is aweful young to be facing 10 years.

Things like this are the reason why I want America to plunge into the furthest depths of the crapper and never go back up again.

Seriously, some reprimanding would have sufficed. She's just a kid.

I'm gonna have to say that I agree that the girl should suffer some kind of penalty, but not jail time or the "sex offender" label..she's only 15 and I doubt she knew the severity of the consequences of her actions. Really tough case to call, though...I don't know all the details but I hope the judge comes to a reasonable solution.

That said, there was a part of the article that bothered me:

Licking County Assistant Prosecutor Erin Welch said Monday the investigation into the incident remains open, including exploring whether charges will be filed against the minors who received the photos.

How can the kids who recieved the photos get in trouble? Unless they asked for the pictures or kept them on their phones, I don't see why they should get in trouble. I have things sent to my cell phone all the time that I don't want there; granted, they are all legal, but I don't choose what comes to my phone.

Actually what I take from this is some justification for my opinion that minors should NOT be given cell phones with cameras on them, their computers do NOT need to have those little handi-cam internet cameras on them, and their access to digital cameras should be monitored by their parents (along with their internet usage and any of the other potential pitfalls the wonderous electronic gadget boom has brought to us all.)

She's just a kid experimenting with her sexuality. And the reason this has occurred to her, whereas it doesn't to other similar girls I've heard about, is she is in a foster home. When a child is in a family that loves her, this would never have been handled this way. My heart is actually stricken for her. There are so many other ways this could have been handled discreetly, with concern for her feelings and for her self esteem and future feelings as a woman, and probably a mother. Just felt stricken at the lack of love and understanding directed towards her by "the system" when no one would handle this like this anywhere that I know. And her story is just one of many like that in their teens.

[edit on 16-10-2008 by mystiq]

I think a mandatory educational video, and a month suspension of her cell phone should be the entirety of her punishment.

I think this punishment ibeing suggested is excessive and ridiculous.

Originally posted by infinite8
I think this punishment ibeing suggested is excessive and ridiculous.

I agree. This is retarded. I'm sick of this world alltogether. We live on Planet Freakin Joke.

reply to post by Lucid Lunacy


And privately done as well. This is not something you do to a kid.

Ok. Most everyone, by now, knows my stance on "child pornography", children having sex, and other similar topics.

So, many might be shocked to here me say: I don't think this girl should be punished by law and neither should her friends whom she sent the pictures too. I see this as NORMAL teenage behavior. I'm sure this stuff went on way back in my day with Polaroid cameras Just sayn'

Also, i'm a Criminal Justice student, so criminal law is a huge issue to me. Many laws on the books I find ridiculous and many punishments that are handed out or NOT handed out, I also find ridiculous.

I say that to bring up this part of the law mentioned in the article:

According to Ohio law, 2907.323(A)(3) states anyone possessing material that shows a minor in a state of nudity is guilty of a fifth-degree felony. The violation also might qualify the juvenile as a Tier I sexual offender, which requires annual registration for a decade.

The section of the law the girl, who is a foster child, was charged with allows parents or guardians to take photos of their unclothed children for a list of acceptable purposes but does not provide an exemption for the child themselves.

So, if her parents/guardians, had taken the pictures then all would be fine??? But because she takes pictures of herself, she could face 10 years?

Yeah. I have many issues with laws and arrests such as these that make no sense.

Maybe she should be punished by her guardians...IE her phone taken away, grounding, etc. But to be arrested and maybe face a legal punishment. NO!!

reply to post by mystiq


Definitely privately done. The whole thing should have been handled privately. The poor girl is probably ashamed enough that parents found out; why does the whole world have to know?

And I agree with the people who've said taking away the cell phone for a while would be reasonable punishment – but that should be up to the foster parents.

This is ridiculous.

I don't understand how having a photo of a naked kid is a crime with such a steep punishment, yet in magazine interviews, musicians can boldly state that they use drugs and nothing is done. (not talking abotu the rightness or wrongness of drugs - just the fact that the artists admits to doing somethign illegal, yet no action is taken.)

So, she can disrobe in person for those kids & that's not illegal (here kids take some condoms from the sex ed class), but taking a photo makes it a felony?

I'm going to play the devil's advocate and try to ge tthe otherside of the story here...
It's a ... er... difficult case.
If this was a case of a adult, 18 or so, sending pics over her phone, there'd be more folks in here saying she's in the wrong.
Kids today are more exposed to sexuality, through school, fashion, television, ect.
Now, for tohse of you saying "Aw, but she didn't know any better!"
Not saying the time sentence is right, but how can you judge a girl's actions from a newstory.
Regardless of your personal leaning, you've probably never met her.
As for sex crimes in general, they get harder to classify since "True love knows no boundries" as I've been starting to hear again.
If you want to think of it as a case, think of it as a person sending a naked picture of themselves to a group of young teenagers.

Wow - PC gone mad!

It's just a teen being a teen for crying out loud.

Does anyone else find the fact that it's in licking county hilarious?

What an outrage

Are these people who file charges blind/ non-empathic

Shes 15, exploring things and probably never heard of the term "sex offfender"

LEt kids be kids please

LEt kids be kids please

I'm probably gonna get flak for this, but I personally regard this as one of the most destructive phrases to ever be uttered. No offense to anyone in general...
But geeze. What a difference a few years makes, apparently.

reply to post by greeneyedleo


No doubt, that 15 is the average age most teens begin to experiment with sex and this case points out how the law was poorly written and is being misused beyond its intent - which is to protect minors from exploitation by predators.

Instead of protecting her it is actually doing quite the opposite and probably scaring her for life from all the negative attention, not to forget potentially ruining her future by labeling her as a sex offender.

In this case I see the system as the predator and the minor as the victim.

I too find many laws and punishments difficult to believe where we have monsters in our society get away with crimes time and time again, but here we have our resources wasted on something that most reasonable people would agree does not amount to a crime.

For Christ sake it's natural human behavior! While it may be on the edge of normal, it certainly does not rise to the level of deviant or criminal.

I find it hard to believe that people in this thread actually think she needs to be punished beyond taking her phone privileges away and maybe an extra class.

[edit on 16-10-2008 by verylowfrequency]

I'm wondering why people are claiming to oppose the law as imposed, in this instance ?

I don't trust fora. They're used by professionals posing as 'ordinary folk' in order to 'form and shape' opinion. And these professionals often get in early in order to influence the opinions of those who come later to the thread.

She's a minor. Right ?

Photos of minors are illegal. Right ?

They are termed 'child pornography'. Right ?

We're OPPOSED to child-porn. Right ? ..... Right ? ... Or not ?

So where's the problem with the law as it was administered in this instance ?


The girl obviously has a very low opinion of herself.

It would appear that she believes her only perceivable 'worth' lies in her 'naughty bits'.

That's the mind-set of women who go into prostitution.

Modesty is normal. It's normal within a society that places a premium on women's 'goodness', 'decency', etc.

The Miss All American Queen does not have nude photographs of herself in her background. Particularly not those she took herself and released to the world.

The same people who dismiss what this girl did as a mere nothing are those who in other threads are criticising Palin and Hillary about elements within their adult lives, such as grand-daughters, adult choice in partners twenty odd years ago, etc.

So there's hypocrisy here .. double standards.

I feel sorry for the girl. Not re: the penalty, but because she craves attention, craves approval and was prepared to make a joke of herself in order to gain these .. from strangers, in the main.

She has a life ahead of her and needs to be shown how best to equip herself in order her life is fulfilling, rewarding, enjoyable, productive. She needs someone to help her discover her strengths and how to maximise her potential.

Growing boobs and pubic hair isn't an accomplishment. How sad she doesn't realise that.

Hope she receives genuine counselling from people who help her develop self-esteem. However, if the law inisists on imposition of the ten year sex-offender label, then that's the law and it's a hurdle she'll have to accept. Hopefully when the ten years have elapsed she'll have moved way beyond using her own body as coinage .. hopefully she'll be well on her way to establishing a career where ability, personality, character etc. are rewarded.