Experts want states to stop prosecuting teens for consensual sexting
Research compiled in a new article in Pediatrics found that texting sexual images has become increasingly common among teenagers in the United States.
That’s not completely surprising, considering teens are using cellphones more than ever.
But in 39 studies featuring more than 110,000 teens, researchers found that more than a quarter of teens (27.4%) have received a sext and 14.8% have sent one.
Boys and girls sext equally, but the older teens get, the more likely they are to be involved in sexting, the authors found.
And in some states, teens risk more than just embarrassment if the photos get out. Twenty-three states allow authorities to prosecute sexting between teens as the production of child pornography.
A conviction could send a teen to prison for up to 20 years and would land them on the sex offender registry.
The authors of the Pediatrics article suggest those laws should be changed when it comes to consensual sexting because the issue is better addressed at home, in schools and by health care professionals than by the legal system.
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Experts need to be in on these bills the determine the consequences of law like on our familys, on the victims, and will this help or harm. I mean think of the harm its gonna do when little kids looking at pictures of bad people hanging on the hotel wall that live close by. It will affect each differently long term. Society has tried to protect itself by extremes and to me taking a step back with this whole thing.
“Fears that sexting represents an increased sexualization of teens in society do not appear justified because sexual intercourse and certain risky sexual behaviors have actually decreased over the last 2 decades. There are 22 million 13 to 17-year-olds in the United States. Smartphone ownership or access now stands at 95% of all teens, a 22% increase from 2014 to 2015 according to the most recent report, and the average age of acquisition is 10.3 years. If ∼15% of teens are sending sexts and 30% are receiving them in the United States, that would amount to 3.3 million sending sexts and 6.6 million receiving sexts, an overwhelming number if prosecutions are to occur. From pure numbers alone, consensual sexting appears to now represent a common adolescent behavior in the digital era that does not warrant prosecution.“
Strasburger VC, Zimmerman H, Temple JR, et al. Teenagers, Sexting, and the Law. Pediatrics. 2019;143(5):e20183183
Yelling “FIRE” in a crowded theater when no fire exists is not protected freedom of speech. I have always gone by the saying…”my freedom ends where the other person’s nose begins”. Conveying harm or a threat of harm was never intended by our Founding Fathers to be ‘freedom of speech’. Threats on a T-shirt are no different than racist comments on a T-shirt. A civil society cannot permit such acts.
I understand my nephew in Ca has changed his profile picture on Facebook to him holding a t shirt that says KILL YOUR LOCAL SEX OFFENDER I don’t want to look at it. Would this be freedom of speech?
Sarah – can you send a picture to [email protected]? We can use that as an example of the hatred and threats directed at registrants.
There are limits to freedom of speech – if he made a threat to an identifiable registrant, it might not be seen as “free speech”
The fastest way to screw up a situation is to get it involved with today’s paranoia driven legal system. I speak from experience.