RICHMOND — The Virginia Senate on Monday passed a bill intended to keep teenagers who willingly share sexually explicit images with each other from being branded felony sex offenders.
The measure, which passed on a bipartisan 35-to-5 vote, would give prosecutors the option to charge “sexting” among minors as a misdemeanor.
Interesting, the article doesn’t distinguish between minors sexting pictures of themselves or pictures of others. Even more interesting is that, once again, a minor can be help liable for committing an offense but not for consenting to an offense in a different situation. At least some of Virginia legislators are trying to have some sense in that this issue should be the responsibility of parents.
“A less-serious, Class 2 misdemeanor charge would apply if the minor possesses no more than 10 images, and if he or she obtained them with the permission of the subject. That charge carries a maximum six-month sentence and a fine of $1,000. A first offender would be eligible for six months’ probation and 50 hours of community service.”
I thought teenagers were too stupid to determine sex matter for themselves. So they can consent to allow a nude photo of themselves to be taken and distributed, but not to have sex?
Nope, R M, I disagree. They should be charged with felony child pronography production and distribution – just like anyone else would be. It’s only by grossly swelling the ranks of these unconstitutional Registries with people’s children, grandchildren, brothers, and sisters, that the public will finally start paying attention to what the Hell is going on! Look, if John Q Public wants to get the scary dangerous child pronography producers off of the streets and out of society, then let’s give them exactly what they want. When more and more families begin to suffer the shame of having a child labeled a “sex offender”, when more and more parents go bankrupt to pay for criminal defense attorneys for their children, then people will start waking up!