When young people find themselves caught up in the criminal justice system on serious charges relating to sexting practices, it’s often a conundrum for sentencing judges.
In some cases judges have expressed concern about the trend, and have exercised their discretion not to record convictions against young people charged with serious child pornography offences, for sharing sexually explicit photos of themselves.
A South Australian Youth Court judge last week spared a 16-year-old boy a conviction for producing child pornography for taking a photo of his own genitals and sending the picture to his girlfriend, who posted it on social media after they broke up.
Interesting that the boy was charged for producing child porn but the ex-girlfriend did not appear to be charged with having child porn, distributing it, or “revenge porn”.