Teen Posting Naked Images of Self on the Internet is a) a SEX OFFENDER? or b) other

ABC News: Inside the Minds of Teens Who Post Sexual Images of Themselves.
“Article starts: Despite specific warnings from prosecutors, the 15-year-old Ohio girl who was arrested last week and accused of sending nude pictures of herself to classmates probably doubted that she could ultimately be forced to register as a sex offender under state law, psychologists and Internet experts say.”


No. No, of course she doubted that she could ultimately be forced to register as a sex offender under state law.
The girl in question is probably many things to many people, but she is unlikely to be an abject moron to the extent that she believes that several years in juvvie detention is a rational consequence of nude self portraits.
Teens posting pornographic pictures of themselves is troubling (to me anyway), and may well be a symptom of ‘the Pornification of American Culture’ and national obsession with 15 minutes of tawdry Reality TV Fame. No contest.
Many teens would benefit from a a dose of responsibility or forethought
or modesty or discretion or etc. No contest.
Here is what I don’t get. My understanding is that part of the reason that child pornography is such a wicked crime is because it is taking advantage of children (under 18) who are not able to legally consent or properly understand the implications of their employ even if they did consent. So teens as the *subject* of teen-pornography are the *victims* for the afore mentioned reasons (amongst others). They are not accessories to the crime. They are victims of abuse.
When teens are distributing pornographic images of *themselves* then, how are they magically able to be criminally liable as a perpetrator of the same crime where they are also the not-criminally liable subject/victim?
Now I don’t think that nudity is fundamentally baddirtyobjectifying, or that this naked picture posting is so widely divergent from sexual exploration or expression, and nobody ever got pregnant or herpes from being looked at. But it remains that you cannot control an image on the internet, and these things do have a social impact, and frankly, this might just be me but if you are going to circulate an image globally, why do it for free? I mean, chances are nobody looking at that image has done me any favors.
…this leaves aside the sheer illogicality of persecuting these kids.
If anything they need therapy or at least a crash course in “following an action to a logically conclusion before committing said action”. In my (limited) experience working with “at risk” youth, all kids learn from juvvie hall is macramé and how to hotwire cars.
Incarcerating, let alone registering these kids as sex offenders dose them or society no good. The only people I can even fathom it benefitting is main-stream pornographers.
Don’t ask me what good they’ve done lately to be the benefactors of such legislative largess.
cross posted at Citizen Girl

Disclaimer: This post was written by a Feministing Community user and does not necessarily reflect the views of any Feministing columnist, editor, or executive director.

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