Sorry but there is something wrong here. The first question that came to my mind was “Who sexualized this child?” What this girl did shouldn’t be criminalized but it isn’t healthy behavior either. This is a red flag, there is something else going on.

Child? That’s a stretch.

Legally she’s a minor, but unless she has a hormone disorder she’s certainly past the age of puberty — when evolutionary biology announces that we’re ready for sexual reproduction. “Nature” has long since sexualized her… literally with secondary sexual characteristics and functions.

Adolescence is a relatively recent social construction, and that requires some serious criticism before we can honestly refer to her as a child. Perhaps “teenager” or “young adult”, but “child” is counter-factual at the very least.

Besides, 15 or 16 is de rigeuer for losing virginity, though some of us gave it up a few years earlier and still grew to be healthy and rational.

I’m genuinely unnerved by your socialization agenda, Noen. Way more than that “radical right-wing” AIP guy and his lame “traditional family” opinion.

Curiously, why do you seem to think that teenagers are going to understand the consequences of their actions any less than adults would in a similar situation? I’ve seen, and heard of, lots of adults doing stupid things when they’re horny or drunk that they regret later — the only difference there is that the adults have already probably made the same mistakes once or twice, and still keep doing it anyway.

Personally, I don’t see this sort of behaviour as any worse than, say, sneaking out of the house at night to go to an R-rated movie with some friends. Is it dumb? Yes. Will there be consequences? Probably (like getting grounded). Should the person be arrested and have their life ruined? No! This is no more someone that should be prosecuted than a first-time curfew breaker — the humiliation, I am certain, is more than enough punishment.

Frankly, this wouldn’t even be an issue if people weren’t so pious and afraid of sex. The only reason we’re even having this discussion right now is because so many adults in this country (and increasingly elsewhere) seem to have the idea stuck in their heads that their precious little (12, 15, 18, 20-year-old) children are pure and free of sin and must be protected from everything “bad” at any cost until the end of time, and they couldn’t possibly be violent or sexual or act in any way human. But, surprise! Humans are sexual, and they are curious; pubescent teenagers, doubly so. Trying to claim that it’s somehow wrong or against the natural order of things flies in the face of basic human instinct. You can try to make a claim that we should be somehow “above” these instincts, but that’s like saying that a penguin should be able to fly because it has wings — it’s not the natural order of things.

I don’t believe she should suffer criminal consequences. I never said any such thing. Did you really think that what I meant? I objected to the blasé attitude of some towards what is a serious problem. That doesn’t mean I think she ought to have gone to jail.

cameras haves been around for a long time but you had to have the photos developed

Nonsense, the Polaroid SX-70 was invented in ’72 and widely available. While I’m sure some very few kids did secretly photograph themselves it wasn’t like this. 11 and 12 year olds didn’t get pregnant either, not like today. Nor was the media as hypersexualized as it is today. Our culture is not healthy, there is a great deal of dysfunction out there.

Oh damn, I totally missed that decimal point. Good thing it wasn’t a medication error instead! :p

This girl clearly does not understand what she has done. I feel sorry for her.

This statement is s ncrdbly arrogant. There’s nothing “clear” about that except in your own sclly cnsrvtv / prdsh head.

You’re also belittling the cognitive ability that young people do have; you’re infantilizing them. Go read some John Holt or John Taylor Gatto.

Nor was the media as hypersexualized as it is today. Our culture is not healthy, there is a great deal of dysfunction out there.

Our culture has problems… such as jingoism, willingness to follow leaders, cognitive dissonance, and the praise of ignorance. But “hypersexualization” is not one of them; if anything a long-standing problem has been prds lk y shaming or condemning people against exploring their sexuality.

Call me crazy if you like but I think that passing sexual photos of yourself around to all your friends, at 15, is not normal. And if it’s becoming a statistical norm it’s not healthy.

Y’r crzy. Nudie pictures / “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours” should precede actual fcking by a few years, and normal people lose their virginity by 15.

His name is Puberty, and he comes wickedly in the night.

If we’re sick, it’s because of how we were raised by our parents, our teachers, our religious leaders, and by anyone wearing a uniform.

c.f. R. D. Laing‘s The Politics of Experience

I was a sexually active 15 year old, all fully consensual and safe, yet I had no desire to share naked pics of myself with large numbers of people. For me this story reflects what I find a worrying trend in young women seeing themselves increasingly in sexualised and objectified terms. I guess in the States there is the equivalent of the ‘Nuts’ magazine generation, and it leaves me a little queasy to think of glamour modelling as aspirational to school girls.

Add that to the fact most kids in care have self-worth issues and I see it as more than everyday harmless fun.

So you could be guilty without doing anything at all? Suppose I send these kinds of photos to Bush?

How to get your rival in jail in 7 easy steps.
1) get his/her phone number
2) buy prepaid handphone
3) get child porn
4) tip off police
5) stake out rival’s house
6) when the police knocks on the door, send the photos
7) celebrate

You’re kidding! Polaroid! You couldn’t easily create copies of the pictures or send them to others, every picture had a perceptible cost, not to mention that the Polaroid market penetration was never even of the same order of magnitude of the digital cameras, and digital cameras are not the only thing you can use to take pictures.

The red flags should go up when pre-pubescent girls start acting out adult sexual behavior.

so this law won’t stop everyone’s kids from getting molested. just some of them.

Possibly State law also.

I grew up in the sixties and seventies. All known sexually transmitted diseases were trivially curable (until Hong Kong Mary came back from Viet Nam). Condoms could be purchased from vending machines in all-night diners but were unpopular because The Pill was available from your family doctor (if your mother agreed, or from the local Dr. Feelgood if not).

If you’re upset that a 15 year old would take nude pictures of herself (in an age where food processing has lowered the onset of puberty to around 9 years old) you really, really, really don’t want to know what 15 year old kids were getting up to in 1975.

–Charlie

Some of the exceptions (to “no law”) are considered valid because they protect victims of the creation of the free expression. That is, by making child pornography illegal, children are protected from exploitation by the producers of the child pornography.

When a 16-year-old wants to engage in First Amendment protected speech, such as by taking a photograph of herself, it is hard to see how the First Amendment could possibly be avoided. It is almost a truism that the First Amendment can never be voided using the argument that allowing a person to engage in free expression by taking a photograph of themselves doing something legal (i.e. it is legal to be unclothed in private) would result in self-victimization.

In any event, there is a fascinating First Amendment issue here.

Common sense, unfortunately, is no longer common.

One of the details which mess it up is that it is a foster child. It certainly shouldn’t have gone public–public information has been perverted into this kind of mess. A private meeting with a magistrate is in order (because of the foster status of the child). Possibly a transfer to a private girl’s school is in order as well. She labelled herself a slut–something which is not overcome in high school.

The red flags should go up when pre-pubescent girls start acting out adult sexual behavior.

But it was the ultimate ironic critique of beauty pageant culture in Little Miss Sunshine!

Mr. Handley’s case began in May 2006 when he received an express mail package from Japan that contained seven Japanese comic books. That package was intercepted by the Postal Inspector, who applied for a search warrant after determining that the package contained cartoon images of objectionable content. Unaware that his materials were searched, Handley drove away from the post office and was followed by various law enforcement officers, who pulled him over and followed him to his home. Once there, agents from the Postal Inspector’s office, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, Special Agents from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, and officers from the Glenwood Police Department seized Handley’s collection of over 1,200 manga books or publications; and hundreds of DVDs, VHS tapes, laser disks; seven computers, and other documents. Though Handley’s collection was comprised of hundreds of comics covering a wide spectrum of manga, the government is prosecuting images appearing in a small handful.

“PROTECT” stands for Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to end the Exploitation of Children Today

All my friends were super sexualized around the age of 15-16 and then we all calmed down. One time a friend of mine said hey wanna see an anime pic and BAMF, my male best friend’s penis.

I keep telling my friends not to make porn of themselves, they fail to listen. A while back Buddy got his phone taken up and almost got charged because he was taking pictures of his girlfriend’s pregnant belly. On school property.

and it is dangerous, because this material ends up in the hands of unintended recipients, including sex predators. so this law won’t stop everyone’s kids from getting molested. just some of them.

Contemporary “stranger danger” panic vastly exaggerates the reality of the risk.

Your kids are statistically most likely to be molested by a parent or “creepy uncle”, if ever (which is still exceedingly rare).

Go read some John Holt or John Taylor Gatto.

Holy crap what a couple of nutcases! Really!? This is the best you got? These flamming kooks? Seriously Zuzu, your ideas are waaaaayyyy out of mainstream and into extremist territory.

“… the human animal is a learning animal; we like to learn; we are good at it; we don’t need to be shown how or made to do it. What kills the processes are the people interfering with it or trying to regulate it or control it.”

Yes, clearly that’s crazy talk. Children must remain in the Skinner box of the education system, to be socialized for the Common Good, right? ::sarcasm::

BTW there is no info on a “Jason Clock”. Let me guess, SciFI writer?

Jason Clock is Jason Clockpolk, according to the profile.

Did you mean Peter Chung? He’s the guy who created Aeon Flux (the one that was on MTV’s Liquid Television, not the one with Charlize Theron), and did character designs for Phantom 2040 and Alexander Senki.