Our Approach To Sex Continues To Be Stupid
- Attack a major city with low-tech weaponry/vehicles;
- Spread rumor about prominent world leaders (their sexual orientation, their religion, their patriotism);
- Give less than 1% of the world population the flu;
- Flash pictures of naked people all over the world.
In Fairfax County, a teenage boy sent out a text message asking girls to send photos of their breasts. Word got out at his high school, police said, and when authorities tracked the teen down, they discovered a cache of naked images on his phone.
Thus began another investigation into "sexting" -- sending sexually explicit photos by cellphone -- and another deliberation about when adolescent impulsiveness and indiscretion become a serious criminal act. Some of the photos could qualify as child pornography, a felony in Virginia, police said...
[snip]
...The sexting phenomenon, which has alarmed parents and educators, is also raising an array of practical questions about how police and prosecutors should respond and what the long-term fallout could be for children.
Locally, the issue appears to have hit a tipping point in public concern. In Fairfax, police organized a community meeting April 20 with a flier that said: "Sexting: It is here. It is destroying lives. Is your teen sending racy photos using their cellphone?"
"This whole phenomenon seems to have exploded in the last 60 days," said John McCarthy, the state's attorney for Montgomery County, who said prosecutors across Maryland have exchanged ideas about the troubling trend.
The problem, he said, is that child porn laws never contemplated "children sharing images of themselves," and youthful sexters have little concept of their actions as a crime. "You can literally see the shock on their faces," McCarthy said.
I don't know what's stranger: that McCarthy is suggesting that those lawmakers of the original child pron laws should have asked, "Well, what if kids start sending naked pictures to each other?" or the idea that because this is all occurring via text message it's some sort of epidemic.
I mean, if a child had an actual photograph of another naked child and was caught with it, what would happen? Whatever the consequence, can't that rule also apply to pictures on a phone?
I mean, how difficult is this, really?
And as for the lack of foresight on the part of the original anti-child pornography laws: well, I'd call it a combination of ignorance and arrogance. The guys were obviously working under the assumption that technology wouldn't "advance" this type of crime, but also assumed that only adults like to look at naked pictures.
In reality, this is more about a lack of sex education than the perversion of our society. But with parents ranging from "Ask your mother/father" to "We'll let the schools cover it" an educational system that can barely seem to teach math, history and science, and politicians who would prefer that the Bible replace a textbook on the human anatomy, it's surprising that the kids don't have ring tones of people in the middle of getting their happy on.
Parents: talk to you kids and get the ball rolling. Schools: pick up where they leave off.
UPDATE: No wonder.
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