Teens arrested for "Sexting"

www.msnbc.msn.com...

Well, what do you think ATS?

Do you think this is a modern version of "You show me yours adn I'll show you mine?" Were the police overreacting?

Do you think that the action here was legitimate based on the potential danger of passing around these pictures?

If these were adults there would be no issue, as it is their bodies, but does that logic extend down to children?

I can understand the school district punishing the children as they generally have rules for cell phone use and do not allow pornography on campus, but arrest is overkill I think.

I think It is bull.

They need to add a stipulation to the law that if the pictures are self portraits then no prosecution can be pursued and as far as the possession charges I think that is equally bull.

The teachers had no right to search through his texts. That is an invasion of his privacy.

And really, putting child porn charges on KIDS?

[edit on 20-1-2009 by Son Of Liberty]

In this case, maybe, but across the board I think that would have some unpleasant effects.

SOmeone could wriggle out of a legitimate child porn conviction by saying "They took the picture themself!"

This does not make sense, so these guys can have sex with each other, but not flirt over text messages?

Whether the teachers have the right to do it is debatable, but keep in mind that most teenagers do not actually own their phones... it is the parents that pay for the phones and foot the bill for the service.

The parents do have the right to look through their kid's texts and calls. They should, to ensure that their kids are safe.

I have to say that i would not want my teacher looking through my kids phone but I would do it myself, and if I found naked pictures of a child on that phone, I would most likely call the police, too.

I wouldn't like my son to have a nude picture of a classmate. I think that the child pornography thing is crap though because they are all in HS and under the age of 18.

My question is though, what right did the school have to search the boys cell phone? Confiscating it because of school rules is ok, but to search the phone? Isn't that a privacy issue?

Yea a bit of overkill IMHO. Another situation where the law can be applied in ways it wasn't meant to be.

This is absurd. These kids, if found guilty, will have on their record a conviction related to child pornography--for the girls, the pornography is of themselves. It would be laughable if the possible outcome weren't so tragic. All of them, if a conviction is reached, will be registered along with general sex offenders. This is....nauseating.

If I was 16, I would expect my mother to not go through my text messages, I would give her the same respect and not go through hers.

Why would you call the police if your kid had a naked pic of his girlfriend?

I would be highly embarassed if my mother found a pic of my fellow classmate on my phone, but I wouldn't expect her to phone the police on me, that would shock me lol.




[edit on 20-1-2009 by _Phoenix_]

It's goofy.

They are calling this child porn... which is illegal for everyone... even though these kids would face no charge for sleeping with each other.

They should not be taking pictures like that of themselves, but yes, that is stupid.

Honestly I do not know what the legalities are there.

I know that while I was in school, cell phones were just being introduced. As a punishment some teachers would take the call or read the text aloud during class if it rang. Maybe it was something like this.

Yeah I've seen threads about similar news reports before. Strange but true haha.

I should have clarified, if it was a picture of a child that I did not recognize, and could not get an answer from my child as to who it was. If I knew I would as a courtesy inform that child's parents and let them deal with it, but if not I would not want to take the chances.

I feel this way though, I will not go through my kid's stuff if they do not give me a reason to do so. However if I find out that they are engaging in behavior that is against the rules, then they forfeit the right to privacy.

YOu summed it up perfectly. I see a countersuit coming from some parents on the school for invasion of privacy.

Child porn is no joke, and protecting children from predators needs to be the goal of every LEO in the nation. However, this is ridiculous. They are not protecting from predators, they are meddling in teenage affairs.

i think it was the teacher that was crazy, what can the police do if they're called? What sort of idiot teacher calls the cops, he should of deleted the pic and told off the boy a bit, maybe someone shuld have spoken to the girls quietly.

What will happen is this 'sexting' phad which probably doesn't really exsist will get hyped up by the media and kids will get special lessons about not sexting -they'll mess up the message so much that they make is sound really cool and kids will suddenly all be aware of this really crazy thing you can do and before you know it it'll be massive.

when i was at school someone got reported to the police by boots because he (15) had pictures of his 16 year old girlfriend topless on a roll of film, police gave him a talking too 'what if they'd got into the hands of pedos, etc, etc' and let him go without charge.

It's amazing to think that their lives are essentially ruined. They'll be registered as sex-offenders and felons. Their entire future from employment opportunities, housing opportunities, relationships, neighborhood stigma, gun ownership, etc... all because government is an a$$hole.

More lives destroyed by government.

Teenagers are already pretty high suicide risks. This wont help.

That kind of makes sense, if it were me I would try to figure out who it was, if he/she knew the person, then I would delete it and forget about it, if they did not know who is in the picture, then that would be a little worrying, because who knows where they got it from.

Yes I would not want to take the risk that it was actual exploited child porn that I am overlooking.

And while the school and police overstepped their boundaries I do not think that we should minimize that it is dangerous for the kids to send out nude pictures of themselves.

Yes it is a bit over the top, but there is a slight danger, that teachers and parents should be aware of just in case.

I mean when I was 14 in school, this girl used to hang out with us boys, a couple of times she flashed her boobies lol. The difference there is like the saying "why don't you take a picture, it will last longer!"
Well yes it will last longer, and that's the danger I guess.