Ohio House backs making teen 'sexting' crime

[The Straight Story]

Ohio House backs making teen 'sexting' crime
Bill rules out harsh penalties because it’s only for minors

The Ohio House yesterday passed a bill that would punish teenagers for "sexting" but ensure that they do not face harsh punishment or be put on the sex-offender registry normally associated with transmitting nude pictures of minors.

"This is a growing problem that must be addressed in the most responsible and effective way," said sponsor Connie Pillich, D-Montgomery, who introduced the bill about a year after a House Republican pushed a similar measure. "Is this behavior bad? Yes. Does it warrant a life sentence as a sex offender? No."

As technology has made it increasingly easy to take pictures and transmit them, studies say a growing number of teenagers are sending nude pictures of themselves or others in what is commonly known as sexting.

But the problem for law-enforcement officers and prosecutors is how to treat these situations under existing law, which is designed to harshly punish those who transmit such pictures and was largely written long before sexting was even possible.

http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/05/27/copy/ohio-house-backs-making-teen-sexting-crime.html?adsec=politics&sid=101

[ShortnFiery]

1. Dumb. eom

[joeybee12]

2. Aw, FFS...

it's only a problem because we were founded by Puritans.

[NeedleCast]

Probably almost completely unenforceable

but it's a lot more sane that previous version of these bills. I still think they need to differentiate between "sexting" a picture of yourself and sending a picture of someone else (especially against their will or without their knowledge).

[aquart]

3. Oh, that'll work.

[DefenseLawyer]

4. It's probably a good thing actually

Sexting is already a crime if the pictures are of minors, and without a law like this you leave it to some zealot prosecutor to charge some kid under an existing child porn statute.

[Posteritatis]

6. At the same time it'll probably lead to a lot more of them getting slapped around by this law. (nt)

[FiveGoodMen]

9. Or we could just acknowledge that we all have bodies ...

... and decide that seeing one shouldn't be a crime.

[LanternWaste]

12. Context, though... as in all things.

Context, though... as in all things.

[FreakinDJ]

13. BINGO !

[dmallind]

5. I think people are missing the main point

right now distributing sexual pictures of a minor is a major felony classified as a sex offender. So an 18 yr old high school senior showing off pictures of how well hung her 17 yr old boyfriend is should be punished like that?

Well if you think no (and Koresh I hope all of you DO) tyhen there are only two choices - completely decriminalize it between youngsters (which means every child porn outfit in the nation will have a 17-18 yr old "CEO" as their frontman to avoid penalty) or make it a lesser crime than it already is - which is teh suggestion.

[glowing]

7. How will they distiguish between a photo snap of a bikini and a bra top?

[Spike89]

8. All for discretion (with multiple meanings)

I hate the knee-jerk mandatory sentencing laws that seem to be what every advocacy group wants to attach to "their" pet crime. Judges aren't perfect, but they are a much better solution than a one-size-fits-all law that simply will never be just. Underage sexters should be treated as juvies and borderline cases should have a judge's discretion. There's a huge difference between a 17-year-old sending a naughty photo and some porn lord distributing/selling pictures of young kids. Mandatory laws that treat them the same means that a) the 17-year-old has their life ruined by a relatively trivial misjudgment or b) the 17-year-old doesn't get the warning/correction they may need because authorities can't act without draconian consequences.

[proudohioan]

10. Seems like the technology of putting a camera on a cell phone...

is creating more problems than it's worth.

Remember the big deal a few years ago with people allegedly taking pictures of people's credit/debit cards?

Honestly, I only use the camera to send stupid pet and flower pix to my daughter in Denver. Is it a nice feature to have? Sure it is, but I could live without it. If it weren't there, I wouldn't miss it. And since it's part of the package, it wouldn't matter if I dropped the feature, it wouldn't cost less. And since texting while driving is dangerous (and illegal in Cleveland), why not just make cell phones to be cell phones, and nothing else.

Sometimes I think we have created a bunch of monsters.

[LeftinOH]

11. Yet another unenforceable law -but it gives the folks in Columbus something trendy to worry about

instead of focusing on dozens of far more pressing problems in Ohio.

[TheKentuckian]

14. Silliness. An issue to be resolved by individual parents and kids

No law required.

Pure nanny state nonsense to make folks believe "something" is being done "for the children", about something they have the power to deal with themselves.

Don't want your teen sexting then take away the phone or have the picture messaging feature removed from the handset.