Is this the whole story? Did he pass it on to others? If he did, he is in fact in violation of the law. You pass on child porn, you go to jail.

If she really just sent it to some boys and they did nothing (although deleting would've been smart) then that seems harsh. He hasn't been convicted, though. One can hope cooler heads prevail.

Why do these kids have cell phones? Seriously? We had a phone in the kitchen when I was growing up. It worked just fine, and no one could get in trouble, because everyone could hear.

I could see maybe getting your kid the type of cell phone that is programmed to only call 911, Mom and Dad's cell phones, home, and grandma...

momof3 the girl passed on child porn, why isnt she in jail?

And why is it wrong for a male to veiw naked females, but not wrong for a female to be naked?

This isnt some 40yr old perv jerking off over a prepubecent. Its a couple of stupid hormonal teenagers.

Time was kids would play this game, the school woould inform the PARENTS INVOLVED AND THE THE WHOLE WORLD - and the boy would have been taken aside by his father and told to respect women and taught the ancient secret of man

And that secret is women are nuts, emotional and rarely held accountable, and the truth is son of you and a girl wind up in trouble you will be the one punished for her actions

But instead by all means lets send im to jail and create a perpetual failure felon and drain on our society. Much better to turn the kid into a monster then deal with this situation as an adult

oh, but can't you see that she was corrupted by his manly influences?

Sadly, my own 8th grader is learning the lesson that "girls can get you in trouble" even if it's just a cute girl with a crush. It's his fault she whispers to him in class, steals his pencils and makes him mad, thus earning a detention.

It's really hard to teach a kid that the appearence of impropriety is the same as actual impropriety in many people's minds.

"And that secret is women are nuts, emotional and rarely held accountable, and the truth is son of you and a girl wind up in trouble you will be the one punished for her actions"

Yup. I want to take aside every male member of my family just before puberty to explain to them not how babies are made, but rather how gals are granted license to destroy lives for the pettiest of reasons.

lujlp and Spartee, I'm glad to read of others who see this insanity as insanity.

The only way the boy could get arrested is by having forwarded the photo or letting others view it on his phone. But the girl should get in the same trouble for passing on child porn - whether it's photo's of herself or not. Maybe it would deter some of our teen (and pre-teen) girls from acting like whores - if they faces some serious child porn penalties.

However, I do agree that there should be a strict penalty on passing on personal and private photos. If I had taken or let my significant other take some compromising photos of me (and I was of legal age) and I found them on some amateur porn site I'd want some legal ramifications to appease me so I didn't have to choke the bastard myself ;)

Must we really legislate everything? The law is not your daddy, and it's not there to protect you from your own lack of common sense. Or at least, it wasnt intended to. And I certainly don't care to have my tax dollars spent on mopping up after idiocy.

You take nude photos, you pay the consequences. If your asshole ex shows all his friends, sure, that's humiliating, but is it illegal? Distribution of photos not taken by you is already illegal, as is using images of a person without a model release.

My s.o. can have pictures of the good or of the face, but not both. 'Cover thy ass,' sayth your brain. Literally and figuratively. No one's fault but yours if you are foolish and in lurve.

That said, if you're a child, and you look at naked' photos of other children, isn't that just porn? That's like saying, 'hey, honey, put on some human porn for us tonight.' Do we need to create a new department? "All decisions must now be approved by your Common Sense supervisors." Who hires these morons?

That should read "the goods" and... Oh, fuck it. Apologies. Commenting while sleep deprived.

That's exactly what I was thinking christina, it's just a kid viewing a picture of another kid, that was sent to him by her, that's not child porn. I think that if the boy is going to get in trouble then the girl should be in trouble as well, same punishment. How can anyone justify arresting a 13 year old boy for receiving a photo on his phone. What the hell is wrong with people. That poor boy is now scarred for life and will probably never be able to have a good relationship with a woman. I can't imagine what he and his poor parents are going through.

One last thing, I have a 13 and a 15 year old nephew, will have to pass this info on to them and warn them to delete any photos they might get from girls. It's a shame that I actually feel the need to let my nephews know about this and warn them in case some girl decides to send them a photo. Thanks for the info Amy.

But isn't the basic problem the definition of "child porn"?

If this girl freely took a nude photo of herself and sent it to a boy, so what? She displayed poor taste, he may have had an illicit thrill (or not).

Who cares? Why should this be illegal?

Sadly, this is not at all unusual. The unequal legal treatment of men has been going on for a long time. Now boys are included as well. And of course the silence from the usual loudmouthed feminists is deafening.

http://www.rickyslife.com/

momof3

If he did, he is in fact in violation of the law.

There is nothing to even imply he did in the article, but lets pretend it happened. Does a thirteen year old boy really deserve to go to jail because he forwarded a picture sent to him (unsolicited unless the article just forgot that part) to his buddies? May not be the kindest thing to do (though I would guess by the tenor of the article that she probably sent it to his friends herself), but not all that unreasonable response from a thirteen year old child.

I doubt it would have occurred to me at thirteen, that under the circs I shouldn't pass along such a picture. Indeed, it would have been rude not to show such a picture to my friends. In a conversation that goes a little like; "man, you'll never guess what that crazy chick whoever gave me - check it out."

Why do these kids have cell phones?

As we are probably going to be changing cervices soon, we will be getting my six year old one. But as NicoleK mentions, it will be one that can only call emergency services and selected phone numbers put in by us. And in spite of having our having the ability to track the locations of any phone on our plan, from parent phones, we won't be using that to spy on him (we mostly wanted that so momma and I can find each other), rather we will only use that when we are picking him up and unsure of where exactly he is, or if he is in an actual emergency.

We won't be putting his friend's numbers in his call list either. Just us, my parents and a few of our friends he may feel the need to turn to.

Nina, that won't help. Even if he deletes it immediately, the authorities can check the cell phone system records and find out that it was sent to him.

dave,
that is probably true, sad to say. Unfortunately both my nephews are very attractive so this could happen to them.

T's in deep, deep trouble if not careful. He's handsome as hell and loves to flirt and tends already to laugh at warnings, has somewhat a devil-may-care attitude.

At 5, he already wants to go scuba diving and mountain climbing. We were watching logging that I said I'd never do and he said he'd try it some day. I said you like adventures. He just nodded grinning with that let them try to stop me when I get big enough look on his face. I won't be at all surprised if he does grow up to be an adventurer and if that's what he'd enjoyed I don't want to be the one to scare him out of it. He's got to be him.

As big a flirt as he is, I think this is gonna be a danger I'll have to warn about but it's freaking ridiculous. Think it'll work if I warn him becoming a teen father or getting labelled a perv when he isn't (at 13!!!) could keep him from the chances of going scuba diving or mountain climbing?

It is ridiculous what they're doing to boys these days. We will be lucky if any of my grandson's generation survive to be men.

T's Grammy -

Think it'll work if I warn him becoming a teen father or getting labelled a perv when he isn't (at 13!!!) could keep him from the chances of going scuba diving or mountain climbing?

It certainly can't hurt and has the added bonus of being absolutely true. Get that label (more to the point, on a sex offender registry) and he really is pretty well fucked.

Using the desired careers of children to get them in line is often at least somewhat effective. The more earnest they are about it the better.

Thanks, DuWayne.

Stories like this freak me out. These kids are arrested over nothing, over being innocent children.

And don't worry, I see him screwing up, his grandmother will go upside his head (figuratively speaking, of course) and say flat out, "What the hell's the matter with you, boy?"

It's a fine line. Don't want to scare him out of living but also want him to realize he's got to be sensible.

So I'll sit back and watch and do my best to see that he's aware without overstressing and making him paranoid.

But it's such a crime just being a boy these days. If anyone should have punished, it should have been the girl -- and certainly not with jail.

Kids sometimes do stupid things.

T's Grammy -

It is a very fine line indeed. And to make it worse, that line moves - usually without prior notification. We just don't know whats happening with them every second of that day - nor should we. Unfortunately, this means that they may have very profound experiences that we know absolutely nothing about - experiences that may well move the bar.

If anyone should have punished, it should have been the girl -- and certainly not with jail.

Were she my daughter, losing the fucking cell phone would have been the beginning. A visit to the local jail to talk with cops (and preferably actual prostitutes) would have been a part of it (not that I have anything against prostitution - to the contrary, I've done it myself and believe strongly it should be legal). A trip to talk with folks at planned parenthood would be in the mix. And she would be grounded as grounded can be, for at least three weeks - and I come from the grounding school that takes away pretty much everything.

And if they would allow it (some don't due to liability), she would spend a weekend or two (full week if not during school) in the local gospel mission. This kind of backfired on them, when my parents did it to me, but knowing what I know, I am comfortable that I could avoid that problem.

What was the problem you ask? I was fifteen and the guy the mission put in charge of me (they wanted me to work) took me on a run to pick up donations. Five minutes into the ride, we were smoking a big fat joint. Working with him was a fucking blast, to put it mildly.

Kids sometimes do stupid things.

I would put it; Kids inevitably do stupid things. And it doesn't matter how well adjusted, how smart, or if they have the worlds greatest parents - it's still inevitable. All that we as parents and grandparents can do, is help ensure that they are very mild, low trouble stupid things.

Well, I'd stop short of the gospel thing (and given how anti-marijuana I am, you didn't convince me otherwise ;) ) but the rest all sound fitting to me.

I'm not too worried about T. It might be an ego thing because he's got so much of my personality, except that he's way more adventuresome and outgoing. Anyone pulls this shit on him is gonna be in for a battle. And, yes, the ACLU is likely to be drawn in. I don't support them for nothing.

He'll get up on a soapbox even quicker than I will. He pleaded heavily against the death penalty when a huge ant that fascinated him in my apartment was facing such. The fact that I killed the critter anyway has not shaken his confidence and I love that.

Weird kid though. He actually asked to watch the Presidental debate -- and knew exactly who he could convince to. (I hadn't planned on it as political as I am; I find them mostly the same old bullshit, especially since they don't let third parties in.) I told his mother, he'll be asleep 10 minutes in and he was but he was interested in the whole proceeding before they bored him to death. Long enough for me to hear that lying McCain who wants to raise my taxes say he wasn't going to raise anyone's.

Good news! At least one place had the sense to arrest the girl!

http://www.newarkadvocate.com/article/20081008/NEWS01/810080302