Sext Abuse

You may have heard already, but teenagers are taking nude pictures of themselves and sending them to each other. This should be expected for a couple of reasons. 1) Teenagers now have 24-hour access to devices that can photograph them and instantly broadcast those images worldwide. And 2) teenagers are, have been, and always will be horny. It's just biology. Obviously parents don't want their kids' naughty bits floating around some telecom's data network, but the authorities haven't been responding to the sexting wave as rationally as they might. Since these pictures are often of underage (and nubile) bodies, they count as child pornography. And even though the people looking at them/taking them are mostly minors themselves, they're being prosecuted as child pornographers. This is incredibly serious, since a conviction could destroy some horny kid's life by labeling him or her a sex offender. But New Jersey seems to be on the right track, as there are bills in the state government that would allow teenage sexters to be sentenced to an anti-sexting educational course instead of facing jail time. While I encourage teenagers to enjoy the fruits of each other's sexy bodies as soon as possible, I think it's wise to caution them against sending pics around. I mean, I've seen the photography skills of most teenagers. At the very least, they shouldn't want the whole school to see their naked flesh in such an unforgiving light. More details here.