Back in January 2009, I wrote Kids Charged for Child Porn Violet Blue: When Teens Make Their Own Porn, Who’s Being Exploited? (for the San Francisco Chronicle). In the article, I reported on the alarming news that teens in different US locales were caught sending each other racy self-portraits with their phones, and were facing felony child porn charges. Pretty insane, sadly true. The most egregious instance was in Philadelphia, I wrote:
This month, three girls from Greensburg, Pennsylvania, that police say are “14 or 15” years old, allegedly sent nude self-portrait phone camera images to three, male Greensburg Salem High School classmates aged 16-17 – and police there have decided to charge all the kids involved with trafficking in child porn. Never mind that school officials and police had seized the images, “investigated” and has had possession of the photos since October of last year. That’s creepy to think about, actually. This month, officers arrested all of the teens and according to WPXI.com, the girls are “being charged with manufacturing, disseminating or possessing child pornography while the boys face charges of possession.”
“It was a self portrait taken of a juvenile female taking pictures of her body, nude,” said Capt. George Seranko of the Greensburg Police Department. “Taking nude pictures of yourself, nothing good can come out of it,” said Seranko. (…more, sfgate.com)
Yesterday CBS re-reported the story in “Sexting” Leads to Child Porn Charges for Teens. There are a few additions, but no real developments other than the District Attorneys sound mentally ill (“Take a photograph of yourself or somebody else nude and send it to somebody else, you’ve committed the crime,” said Perry County District Attorney Charles Chenot, who has prosecuted two sexting cases involving a total of 10 minors in the past year. Chenot said he considers sexting a form of child pornography and …said he is just trying to protect kids.”). And that 20 US states have considered or adopted new sexting laws for minors over the past two years.
What they didn’t link to is this ACLU press release stating the ACLU filed suit two weeks ago against a Wyoming Pennsylvania (correction: Wyoming County) school district on behalf of an accused student (female accused of self-child porn) for illegal search. What is revealed in the press release is, I think, pretty shocking.
Photo by Eon McKai.
Zooey, thanks for the fix: I corrected, and had written Wyoming when it was Wyoming County. ack! thanks again :)
Just a minor correction: the ACLU lawsuit is against a Pennsylvania school district, not a Wyoming school district. It is in Wyoming County, PA, though… On another note, I hope the school, the DA, and the cops get their butts kicked! Good work ACLU!
While I agree with Jim, he is wrong about the positive analysis; once a child breaches the threshold of a public school, his or her rights become an irrelevant abstraction.
And the victims are…?
Wow, that press release in mind-boggling. Not only should the school be sued, but the principal should be prosecuted criminally. Stories like this make me want to donate to the EFF.
Also, it’s a good reminder why locking your cell phone with a PIN is a good idea. If she’d lost her phone and some kid had found the pictures and mailed them to the school, it would have been wrong of the kid to do that, but the girl would still be embarrassed.
I guess my only thought is, why don’t these kids password protect the phones. All phones have a lock down feature. I’m not saying I would condone my son/daughter taking and sending nude/semi nude pictures of themselves and this age but common.