Is Sexting Child Pornography?

Teens, Nude Photos and the Law

You learn something new every day. And a few days ago my new thing was to learn that to send a nude photo of yourself to someone else's cell phone is called "sexting," and that one in five teenagers report that they have done this.

There are teen girls that have been charged with disseminating child pornography for sending nude photos to their boyfriends and teen boys charged with posession of child pornography for having said photos on their phones. One teen boy was charged with a felony for sending pictures of his genitals to female classmates. Many other examples are out there of teens becoming involved with the criminal justice system due to their sexting. Some of these crimes can require these teens to be registered as sex offenders for a decade or two!

I agree entirely with the author of this editorial that, in general, this activity should not be in the purview of police intervention. There are certainly instances where sexting can be used to harrass or intimidate, such as a case where nude photos of a teen girl were sent to over 100 of her classmates. But I would guess that the majority of the 20% of teens taking part in this new form of sexual behavior are innocently (though stupidly) trying to be flirty or sexy or adventurous. I'm sure if I thought about it, I could come up with similar behavior from when I was a teenager...it just wouldn't have been quite so public, permanent, or easy to reenact (copy).

There is much to be analyzed from this sexting behavior: the relatively new phenomenon of our public and private lives being blended through the use of network technology, the responsibility individuals have regarding the production and dissemination of inappropriate or embarassing text, pictures, audio, and video that can be saved forever, the role of parents, and the view our society has of sexual content in general (particularly involving children--though I am loathe personally to categorize anyone capable of getting to school themselves, getting homework done, doing chores, having jobs, going anywhere by themselves, or being able to get themselves fed as "children").

On my parenthetical note, and in fact segueing appropriately into what I wanted to discuss, let's ask ourselves what the point of having crimes related to child pornography is in the first place. Being an ardent civil libertarian, I would argue that "victimless" crimes are not appropriately handled by the criminal justice system at all. (And that broad statement leads to a whole other discussion, already incredibly handled by Peter McWilliams in Ain't Nobody's Business if You Do ). Child pornography, in the way it is understood by the general public, is not a victimless crime. Very young and preteen children used in child porn are being more than exploited for the pleasure of others, they are being abused. We begin to be sexual beings not so long after being born, but the playing of doctor between kids is much different than an adult taking pictures. The line becomes trickier with teens, but even a 16 or 17 year old can have older and wiser individuals take advantage of their inherent naivete to encourage the production of pornographic material.

But c'mon...do we really believe that the 13 year old girl sending a nude photo to her 14 year old boyfriend is being exploited? No. Immature, thoughtless, careless, hormonal? Yes. We live in a society where we desired the teenage Britney Spears BECAUSE her persona juxtaposed her supposed innocence and virginity with completely sexualizing dancing, costumes, and lyrics. She wouldn't have been as "hot" if she admitted to being "not so innocent." Is there a resistance to teens sexualizing themselves more honestly because there is an undercurrent in our society that then they are less desireable?

I more think the reality is that our culture and laws, as is the case with many other technologically related issues, have not caught up to the current reality. The consequences of this thoughtless behavior could still be criminal, but nothing like the charges of "distributing child pornography." Perhaps it could be put more into the realm of something like truancy. What it most brings into focus for me is that I as a parent need to continually be aware of the stupid things my kids can do to mess up their futures so that I can try to guide them away from those activities.