they should put a restraining order on her abuser. maybe she'll spontaneously learn to bilocate, to uphold the 100 yards clause.

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This will probably the first legal case of it's kind & likely create all kinds of weird laws about self-porn. Great!!! Just what we need, more stifling rules about what each individual is allowed to do with themselves!!! Gaah!!! :(

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It does seem kind of silly at first glance. I can imagine not wanting to allow this as some kind of loophole where pedos can get away scot-free as long as they entice the kids into doing it themselves, though.

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"Where are the parents?!"

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Bingo!

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Hopefully not in the room. That would be freaky.

On the other hand, hell, should your parents be around when you're 18 and decide to do this? Not bloody likely since it's your own goddamn choice. Too much power is given to parents to oppress their kids and treated like it's a good thing.

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I can understand her being charged with possession of child pornography and dissemination of child pornography, but it seems really strange to me for them to charge her with sexual abuse of children. That charge just doesn't seem to make sense in this case.

I wonder if she even realized this was illegal.

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But should possession of pictures of yourself be considered possession of child pornography? What if she had never distributed them? Would it still be illegal?

Two things strike me as interesting about this story: First, they don't say how the police found out about this. Second, and even more interesting, is that they don't mention the age of the recipients of the pictures, whether they were kids around her own age, adults who didn't know her age, or adults who were actually trolling for underage girls.

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you are everywhere.

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Won't somebody PLEASE think of the children!?

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Somebody did. That's why the child is the one with charges against.

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hehe thats kinda funny, you say this with a icon from the scene where Shinji(age 14) is masturbating over the limpless body of Asuka (age 14).
Great movie and series by the way. :)

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I think I need to read up on filesystem encryption now.

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It's the mobius strip of law. mmm.

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I bet you anything she'll grow up to be a performance artist, now. That's the sort of effect that stifling bureaucracy has on budding sexuality. Just trust me on this one.

A.

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Good God. Can I be arrested for sodomizing myself?

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Only if you're really flexible.

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I have concluded the following about my opinion of this incident:

15 year old taking sexually explicit pictures of herself: Can see no good reason this should be illegal.

15 year old (or anyone) distributing said pictures to other people: Probably should remain illegal, for a variety of reasons.

As for what should happen to the girl? I think this is a case of "no harm, no foul." Tell her sorry, but she has to wait until she's 18 to give away nudie pixx0rzzZz of herself. And then send her on her way. I expect just the notoriety of having this case go public will deter her in the future.

Are there problems with this approach? A boatload. On the one side I seem to be endorsing the creation of kiddy porn, even if it isn't ever seen. While at the same time I'm marginalizing the rights of children, and denying someone the right to distribute their own image, both of which I dislike on principle. There's also the case of what if the 15 year old gives naughty pics of herself to her steady boyfriend, which would remain technically illegal even though perhaps it shouldn't be.

I don't kow. There doesn't seem to be any good middle ground here. No matter what I decide, I feel like I'm doing something wrong. I guess, in my mind, it comes down to harm to society. In this case, the traditional arguments are that kiddy porn encourags pedophiles, and exploits children. I find it difficult to believe that the 15 year old girl is "exploiting herself" by taking pictures that nobody sees. Similiarly, if nobody sees them, they can't encourage pedophiles.

(Unless the 15 year old girls IS a pedophile - and she's encouraging her own pedophilia by taking nude pictures of herself. In which case I'll happily defend her right to masturbate to naughty pictures of herself while thinking, "Check out this underage chick right here! Woo-woo!")

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Individual constitutional protections are not age dependent; the Supreme Court has noted, "constitutional rights do not mature and come into being magically only when one attains the state-defined age of majority." Planned Parenthood of Cent. Mo. v. Danforth, 428 U.S. 52, 74 (1976).

A legislature is without authority to disable personal constitutional rights by age; relevant examples include: a minor may purchase and receive contraceptive materials for personal use irrespective of age; see Carey v Population Services Int’l 431 US 678 (1977). A minor’s individual right to choose abortion is absolute; a legislature cannot disable the right to abortion by age, even if under the local age of consent; see Planned Parenthood of Cent. Mo. v. Danforth.

Sexually active minors (especially those at the local age of sexual consent, married, or otherwise legally emancipated) who choose to privately record or share sexual images of them self have the same constitutional rights as any adult; further, the right to produce such materials includes the right to possess and receive such materials from others.

This person needs a good lawyer!

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Cool. Can't wait to hear about the first 14-year-old boy charged with sex with a minor for masturbating.

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And there, as they say, is the rub - no pun intended.

-bZj

[Avoiding obvious joke about being personally charged with multiple counts.]

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shit like this is why i moved from pittsburgh to sunnyvale. they're not so bright where i come from :/

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When I was a kid, I thought the 21st century would be all futuristic.

But it's just turned out to be one big Onion article come to life.

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If it goes to trial, could she be tried as an adult? Would she have to register as a sex offender, and be subject to Megan's law?

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the looks on her neighbors' faces when she has to introduce herself to them as a registered sex offender. ;)

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Naked teens on the interweb??? WTF!!!!!!!!!!!

WON'T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN

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can they release her name if she were convicted? She's a sex offender so they have to and the victim so they can't.

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and underage to boot, so they really can't...

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It's kind of funny - this is what I've read about today:

• A student getting kicked out of Academy of Art University for writing a violent paper, and the prof gets fired to boot. - link [Thanks, BoingBoing!]


• The latest opinions of the FCC - link


• And now this.

America really seems to be moving backwards, freedom-wise. Soon it'll be just like the 1800's, except we'll have computers! And you'll be able to use them for whatever you want, as long as the state agrees...

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Yet all the steampunk I've read indicates a return to morality as well... hmm.

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I can't seem to work in a joke about a person with multiple personalities taking himself hostage. I think it would fit in just fine, though.

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Individual constitutional protections are not age dependent; the Supreme Court has noted, "constitutional rights do not mature and come into being magically only when one attains the state-defined age of majority." Planned Parenthood of Cent. Mo. v. Danforth, 428 U.S. 52, 74 (1976).

A legislature is without authority to disable personal constitutional rights by age; relevant examples include: a minor may purchase and receive contraceptive materials for personal use irrespective of age; see Carey v Population Services Int’l 431 US 678 (1977). A minor’s individual right to choose abortion is absolute; a legislature cannot disable the right to abortion by age, even if under the local age of consent; see Planned Parenthood of Cent. Mo. v. Danforth.

Sexually active minors (especially those at the local age of sexual consent, married, or otherwise legally emancipated) who choose to privately record or share sexual images of them self have the same constitutional rights as any adult; further, the right to produce such materials includes the right to possess and receive such materials from others.

This person needs a good lawyer. You have the same rights as any adult!

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