Sexting Legislation: Protecting Or Eventually Harming Teens?

Posted by Vulnadia on Feb 11, 2011 at 09:02 AM Sexting legislation is becoming quite the hot topic of the hour. For the unitiated, sexting is the act of sending provocative or explicit messages & or photos via cellphone & is extended also to computers. A lot of adults do it (equate it to the cute love notes of years gone by or messages wives leave their husbands in their lunches or post-it notes left on the vanity etc) but it's becoming quite the social norm for teens, too, which has led to a more widespread issue. Technically, if an adult is found with this sort of image or message from a teen or iniated by a teen on their cell or computer it becomes an issue of child pornography, technicality or not (think on the grounds that your child has a laptop with webcam or their cell phone but you are responsible for it & it is also YOURS as a parent.) This opens up a whole new slew of issues should the information be found...what's a parent to do? What do Law enforcement officials do also in these situations? Burden of proof becomes an issue, as does context of the images, messages & their creations. The sender & the receiver are obviously at risk as well. There are laws in place to protect us from predators & those laws are wonderful, however with the advent of teen sexting, it has opened up a whole new world of problems. What should parents do to combat it? What if anything should schools do to protect students? And then there is the biggie, state intervention & legislation is being considered and of course this will lead to national policies as well. Exactly who's job is it to police this? How can we as parents protect our children? HERE is an article on the debate and HERE is a blog on how the state of Texas handles sexting for sake of example. The penalties in texas for sexting are 10 years jail time & life on the sex offenders list according to the blogger. Sure the blogger is bordering on the absurd to show the folly of the situation and there is a lot of sarcasm involved, but it is a good look at what is really going on. Exactly how should this be handled legally? Where are the lines to be drawn between adult predators & teenage antics? There is a HUGE margin for error but the law is still the law when it comes down to it & interpretation can be a problem. 10 years ago, these messages were in the form of passing notes in class & possible polaroids left in lockers for sake of example-should this be punishable by law? Life on a sex offenders list is pretty harsh for a teen but not for a true sex offender who molests children- yet there isnt a clear definition yet. What do you think about the issue? What would you do if it were your teen? Kids are going to be kids no matter what we as a parent do. It is inevitable that at some point or another your teen will engage in some form of sexting (may nor may not include the picture portion) but what if the law was applied to your child today? What would you as a parent do? Should teens be imprisoned & put on sex offendors list for sexting? Should it be left to the parent, school or law enforcement to decide punishment?