14yo girl facing felony child porn charges, 10 years for selfie

A 14-year-old Minnesota girl who sent her boyfriend an explicit photo she took of herself may face up to 10 years in jail and be registered as a sex offender.

Doe admits to sending a sexually explicit selfie to a boy she met at school.

"kids shouldn't be charged with felonies for creating material of themselves"
RT News

“To suggest that a juvenile who sends a sexually explicit selfie is a victim of her own act of child pornography is illogical,”

“Pursuing felony charges against victims will not deter teens from exploring their sexuality. It will, however, prevent victims facing exposure and bullying from coming forward. The message being sent to young women is that if this happens to you, it is more your fault than his.”
ACLU

A 14 year old girl in Minnesota is facing felony child pornography charges, 10 years in prison, and being forced to register as a sex offender... Because she took a sexually explicit photo of herself and sent it to a boy.
In my opinion, this is an absolute perversion of the law, a sentiment shared by the American Civil Liberties Union, who is calling for the felony child pornography charges to be thrown out. On their website, they point out that this is going to do far more harm than good. Imagine a teenage girl being coerced or talked into sending a photo of herself that she didn't really want to send, but now it's being spread around and used to bully her. Now she can't come forward and talk to anyone out of fear of her entire life being absolutely ruined by the legal system.
Now, I don't think it's good idea for 14 year olds to be sending sexually explicit photos of themselves to anyone. BUT sometimes they do do it, and when it happens, there should be consequences. Sitting down with them, explaining why it's a bad idea, and then revoking their phone privileges and grounding them for a while would be an appropriate response... Not sending them to prison for 10 years and legally turning them into a sex offender, effectively ruining any chance they have to live a normal life.

the level of retardation approaches it's tipping point, arm, stock and prepare for the inevitable collapse of society due to a population of lemmings follow each other off of a cliff

a reply to: trollz

I almost 100% agree with all of the above, aside from this:

The message being sent to young women is that if this happens to you, it is more your fault than his.”

Because the fact is, it absolutely is 'more your fault than his'.

We need to be teaching these kids personal responsibility, not giving them the impression that shifting the blame onto someone else, for decisions they made themselves, is acceptable.

However, making a 14 year old into a sex offender for taking a picture of their own junk is going a tad too far...

Absurdity has become the new norm in America.

The girl should not be charged, but the parents should.

a reply to: trollz

And yet people like Weinstein walk free. SMFH

originally posted by: UKTruth
The girl should not be charged, but the parents should.

That's stupid too.

This should not be a crime period.

Now if an adult has the photo or video in their possession, then yeah. The law should be applied.

I would have thought the laws would have been adjusted appropriately years ago when this 1st started coming up.
It's ridiculous.

The phrase "prosecutorial over-reach" comes to mind. Good grief

originally posted by: UKTruth
The girl should not be charged, but the parents should.

Yeah, ok. How would you like it if the police showed up at your door and said "Sorry, your kid did something stupid today. You're under arrest."

originally posted by: trollz

A 14 year old girl in Minnesota is facing felony child pornography charges, 10 years in prison, and being forced to register as a sex offender..

This is getting to be ridiculous.

Maybe we should arrest GOD, and put GOD on trial, for all the nude people he created.

GOD is the ultimate pedophile, for making those "images" in the first place.

As GOD made man in his own "image". He's obviously a "pervert."

That was the ultimate "selfie", wanting to see his own image being reflected in mankind.

originally posted by: watchitburn

originally posted by: UKTruth
The girl should not be charged, but the parents should.

That's stupid too.

This should not be a crime period.

Now if an adult has the photo or video in their possession, then yeah. The law should be applied.

I would have thought the laws would have been adjusted appropriately years ago when this 1st started coming up.
It's ridiculous.

Totally onboard with not prosecuting the girl - in fact, she should probably get some help.
The parents should obviously not go to jail, but they should be held to account in some way. The girl is their responsibility.

I think there is a deeper moral issue in society at play that leads to issues like this - kids are exposed to sex way too early in the name of 'education'. I don't see that education really working to make the world a better place. Probably a different thread, though.

a reply to: UKTruth

So you want to criminalize how they've parented their child because of one act their child did?

Boy. That's a can of worms if there ever was one.

These cases have been happening for 16 years now. I remember one back in 2000. There was a documentary on "behind the scenes" at the Playboy magazine. They were interviewing a professional model photographer, and he was saying "everyone should try being a photographer, grab a camera, even if it doesn't have any film inside and just pretend to take pictures". So a couple of teenagers do just that, and then forget about it. They didn't even know that there were a few frames of unused film inside. Then one of them gets the film developed by the supermarket photoshop. Next thing, there is a police raid on their homes because the technician had uncovered evidence of "underage pornography". Even parents taking photographs of their children having their first "...." was enough to get some parents arrested.

After these types of incidents, sales of film cameras dropped and digital cameras took off. Sales of digital cameras dropped off once smart-phones with built in cameras and networking became popular. Now the same sort of arrests are being made, but only because a smart-phone makes it simple to take a picture and distribute it within seconds.

a reply to: UKTruth

Except that the girl is 14. A teenager. Do we really expect even the most supposedly well behaved teenagers, to actually totally behave?

Teenagers do stupid stuff. Hopefully they learn from it. What I've seen from teenagers, is that the more strict the parents are, the more some rebel.

a reply to: trollz


Is this true?

First off, children’s brains are not fully developed til they are about 25 on average.

Second, kids do stupid things, and now that they have cellphones there is proof.

The phone needs to be taken away.

Jail time and registering her as a sex offender is insane.

I’ve seen people get less time for aggravated murder.

Sick of hearing parents should be charged for problems that are often caused by societal norms.

originally posted by: Shamrock6
So you want to criminalize how they've parented their child because of one act their child did?

It's the only way to be sure, short of nuking her from orbit of course.

a reply to: trollz

So the little girl will possibly go to jail and become a pedophile for doing exactly what society has taught her to do. Sounds about right.

a reply to: trollz
It will get tossed out don't worry. It doesn't take a $5,000 attorney to tear this one up.

Somebody might want to let her know that the pictures are on file and thousands of people have access to them.

This has come up in the past. It IS child pornography. I seriously doubt she'll see a jail cell though.