Stupid kids have been doing stupid things since the beginning of time. There should be a better way to handle it than making stupidity a crime:
CHICAGO (CBS) — Four suburban teenagers have been arrested on felony charges, for an explicit video they posted on Twitter.
All four students attend Joliet Central High School, and are between the ages of 14 and 16. A 15-year-old girl and three of her classmates recorded consensual sex acts one week ago, and posted the video on Twitter.
The girl’s mother found out about the video, and reported the Twitter post to police, who seized the original recording.
The four teens were arrested Friday, and charged as juveniles with child pornography.
Like it does everything else, exploding digital technology is accelerating and deeping the effects of kids' lack of judgment and resulting risky behavior. This is a terrible problem that I confess I have no idea how to get a handle on it. But criminalizing foolishsness doesnn't seem to be a good answer. I mean, the whole point of child pornography laws is to protect children from adult predators. Giving them a sex offender status that will follow them around for life is not protecting them.
Are we going to make a habit of this? Indiana enacted a fetal homicide law in 2008. It came in the wake of a bank shooting, in which a man shot a woman who was five months pregnant in the abdoment, killing the twin girls she was carrying, so the purpose was allegedly to protect women and unborn babies from violent third parties. But now it's being used against women, including this one, who may face up to 40 years for feticide and neglect of a dependent (how in the world could she do both?). I don't care where you are on the choice/life spectrum, such backdoor manipulation of the law should be at least a little troubling.
