Saturday, January 17, 2009

Teens will be teens

I mentioned briefly the story of several teenagers, all under 18, who were charged with possession and distribution of child pornography for photos the girls took of themselves and texted to the boys. Here is the link to that story.

Maybe there's a lot more to this situation than is being reported, but I kind of doubt it. Based on what we do know, can anyone please explain to me how such a prosecution is warranted? Who benefits? I don't know specific sex offender registration laws in Pennsylvania, but I would guess that these kids, if convicted, would need to register as sex offenders, at least for 10 years. None of those kids will be served by having to endure the next 10 years of their lives with that spectre hanging over them.

I have a hard time seeing this case as anything but a complete waste of time and judicial resources. Not to mention that each one of these kids will need to have lawyers, so there are 6 separate defense attorneys who have to put time into this nonsense. This would be a prime example of that prioritizing I wrote about a poor decisions and save the criminal justice system for people who are actually doing harm to others.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm in total agreement with you. This is nothing more than juvenile shenanigans, certainly not worthy of the attention it seems to be getting. I wonder how much of this is due to the prurient conservative thinking that many fundamental Christians have about sex.

Language Lover said...

Thought of you and this post when I read this in the latest Newsweek.

S said...

Thanks for that link. Dahlia Lithwick often says what I think, but more persuasively.

 
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