Reeducation for Jersey Sexters

Via Reason’s Katherine Mangu-Ward we learn that New Jersey legislators, in “recognizing that teenagers who e-mail nude or sexually suggestive photos of themselves to friends aren't really child pornographers,” are proposing an alternative to prosecution. If the bill passes, charged sexters will merely be forced to attend a “course focusing on the consequences of such acts.” I fear for any 13-year old girl forced to attend a Jersey-led course justifying the criminalization of her own image, but I guess it’s better than, as the bill’s author puts it, “hauling them off to jail.”

Photograph by George Doyle/Getty Images.

Tags: sexting

Kerry Howley is a contributing editor at Reason Magazine and an Arts Fellow at the University of Iowa's literary nonfiction program.

Comments

Thank You, Sexting

By: Human Jai Alaig... | Fri, 07/24/2009 - 16:19

Whenever I read a sexting story in the news (and I'm from Cincinnati, where Jesse Logan committed suicide after nude photos she took of herself were shot all over Sycamore High School, so I've read a couple doozys), I can't help but consider the prospect of having children of my own one day and thinking, "You know, I really hope that lifelong exposure to cell phones, electrical wires, and NutraSweet has made me incurably sterile."

I don't think they should

By: dcdeeva | Fri, 07/24/2009 - 14:42

I don't think they should take away the consequences. I think that we need to teach our children that there are consequences for their actions. I think that this is an easy out. Do we want them to stop sending pornographic/ nude pictures of themselves or not? I think that the law is correct as it reads. If we continue to buy into the hype that our children are sex-crazed and can't be stopped so we might as well let them be kids and they shouldn't be punished we are going to cripple our children! It is not the politicians jobs to teach our children right and wrong and that they shouldn't be emailing or texting nude pictures of themselves. It's Our Job!

well . . .

By: P Starling | Fri, 07/24/2009 - 08:48

I think it's okay to explain to a 13 year old that the law wants to prevent *other* people from owning naked pictures of her. She can own all the nude photos of herself that she wants. So long as the course focuses on the possible wider electronic dissemination of the photos and the consequences if she sends them to adult people (the potential consequences to the adult people, natch), rather than making her feel that nice girls don't believe in sex . . .

Oh, wait. That may be too much to hope from politicians. Any idea what sort of course this would be?