LOUISA, VA (WWBT) – The American Civil Liberties Union is speaking out, saying it’s concerned with how police are handling a massive child porn investigation in Central Virginia. NBC12 was the first to tell you that authorities are looking into more than one thousand inappropriate pictures and videos posted online involving teens in Louisa, Hanover and Goochland. The ACLU goes as far to say that minors have the constitutional right to take nude photos of themselves and send it to most whomever they chose. While, according to investigators, they’re trying to save these teens from committing crimes…
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VA: Underage Virginia ‘sexting’ ring ensnares 100 teens, uncovers 1,000 pictures
A sprawling central Virginian “sexting” ring was busted up by authorities after pictures of naked 14- and 15-year-olds sprang up on Instagram, cops say. The disturbing investigation revealed more than 1,000 pictures, some videos and more than 100 involved teens through six different counties who may not realize sharing such photos of underage kids can be a felony, police told the Central Virginian. Out of those thousand images, there are some of them that are not sexually explicit, but are what we would call inappropriate or provocative — in their…
Read MoreMO: Students to be charged with distributing child porn
ST. CHARLES COUNTY – St. Peters police say some St. Charles County students are likely to be charged with distributing child pornography. NewsChannel 5 has exclusively learned the case involves nude selfies taken and texted out by students at Fort Zumwalt East High School. Full Article / Video
Read MoreKY: Viewing child porn not victimless crime; Ky. punishment fair (Op-Ed)
I am a clinical psychologist, lately retired after 12 years of service to the state as an approved provider of sex-offender evaluations to the courts. I wish to address misconceptions in the Guy Hamilton-Smith commentary, in which he complained that he was being unduly punished by being required to register as a sex offender and the subsequent letter of support from Marjorie Valentine of CAUTIONclick National Campaign for Reform. First, possession of or viewing child pornography is not punished as a violent crime in Kentucky, as the letter’s headline suggests.…
Read MoreNE: Norfolk man gets chance to be free of the label ‘offender’
LINCOLN — ___ ___ stands before two rare opportunities that could change the course of his life. One could restore his reputation. The other could revive a dream. The 25-year-old Norfolk man recently participated in a free-agent tryout for a chance to punt in the National Football League. His odds of making it, though slim, would improve if not for three words that turn up on the background check: registered sex offender. So when ___ isn’t punting, he’s working toward a pardon. He took a step closer Thursday when the Nebraska Board of Pardons…
Read MoreVisiting Child Pornography Websites Is a Crime—Appeals Court
Viewing child pornography on the Internet constitutes the crime of “possessing” or “controlling“ such matter, in violation of Penal Code §311.11, the Court of Appeal for this district held yesterday. The court also said that viewing the images constitutes possession inasmuch as a PC automatically captures the images, downloading them to the cache, and that causing them to be visible on the screen amounts to control. Full Article
Read MoreUK: Jamie is 13 and hasn’t even kissed a girl. But he’s now on the Sex Offender Register after online porn warped his mind…
(April 2012) Jamie was ten years old when he saw his first pornographic sex scene. During a sleepover, a classmate offered to show him ‘some funny pictures’ on his laptop. ‘At first I found it a bit scary and a bit yucky,’ Jamie told me as he shifted uncomfortably on his chair during our therapy session. ‘I didn’t know it was possible for people to do those sort of things — and there were lots of nasty close-ups. But it gave me funny feelings and the pictures started to stick in…
Read MoreUK: Senior Tory adviser arrested on child abuse images allegations
A senior adviser to David Cameron was arrested on child abuse images allegations, Downing Street said tonight. … The Prime Minister brought him into Downing Street in 2011 to work in the Number 10 policy unit. He took responsibility for home affairs issues and was among officials who were involved in drawing up controls against internet images of child abuse. Full Article
Read MorePA: Child Porn Charges Reinstated Against Sexting Teen
LEHIGH COUNTY, Pa.—In a move that may have the effect of branding a teenage girl—and possibly hundreds more—as a “sex offender” for life, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has reinstated child porn charges against the girl, known in court papers only as “C.S.”, who posted a hardcore video of two of her teenage friends on Facebook. C.S. was originally charged with violations of 18 Pa.C.S. §6312, “Sexual Abuse of Children,” for having “disseminated” the video in violation of subsection (c) of the law, and also under subsection (d), “Child Pornography.” However,…
Read MoreFL: Eighth Grader Faces Child Pornography Charges
NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla- A Pasco County eighth grader faces felony child pornography charges after deputies say he posted a nude picture of a 13-year-old girl on Facebook. Deputies said the 14-year-old boy had been exchanging pictures on an app but became angry when the girl stopped sending explicit photos. The girl, meanwhile told investigators she never expected to see those photos made public. The suspect’s mother, who said this was a case of two kids arguing and said that it shouldn’t have made escalated into adult felony charges. She also said the…
Read MoreClandestine websites fuel ‘alarming’ increase in child porn
WASHINGTON — Often, as the homemade videos begin streaming across the computer screen, unwitting children appear holding homemade placards bearing the pseudonyms of the macabre films’ makers. The makeshift message boards represent claims of credit for the ghastly images that follow: children, some pleading for help, being sexually abused in torturous ways by parents, relatives or others. Among the worst: infants used as toys for the videographers’ and viewers’ sexual gratification. Full Article
Read MoreCapitol Punishment: The Troubling Consequences of Federal Child Pornography Laws
Until Dec. 11, 2013, Jesse Ryan Loskarn was a popular chief of staff for a Tennessee senator. But on that winter day, police broke down the door of his rowhouse in southeast Washington, D.C., and searched for the illegal digital items that had led them there: explicit videos of boys posing nude and engaging in sexual acts. On Thursday, Jan. 23, 2014, Ryan was found dead in his basement. On Monday, Jan. 27, 2014, there was a twist. Ryan’s mother posted his suicide note online, revealing the great complexity to…
Read MoreWI: Sexting can be considered child porn, so what penalties should kids face?
MILWAUKEE —Research shows one in five teens are sexting — the sending of sexually explicit text or email messages. WISN 12 News investigative reporter Colleen Henry looks into the problem facing parents, police and prosecutors — what to do with kids caught sharing these explicit messages. It’s a digital world, which can change as quick as the click of a camera. “I do think it has desensitized us to what we put out there. We share everything else. Why not share a picture of us?” University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee junior ____ said. Full…
Read MoreOur misguided child porn laws do little to protect children
In the letter he wrote on the day he hanged himself last month, Ryan Loskarn talked about the shame and guilt he felt after he was caught with child pornography. Loskarn, former chief of staff to Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), did not mention fear of prison, perhaps because he had already resolved to end his life. But for anyone in his position who planned to stay alive, the prospect of spending years behind bars would loom large. The legal treatment of people caught with child pornography is so harsh that they can end up…
Read MoreVA: Teen Girl Accused Of Posting Nude Selfies, Arrested For Child Porn
A 16-year-old Virginia girl is facing child pornography charges, after police say she posted photos of herself naked on Twitter. Authorities received an anonymous tip describing the photos, which were posted to Twitter around Jan. 30. The girl, a student in James City County, admitted to posting “multiple” lewd photos of herself to the social networking website last week, according to police. Full Article
Read MorePA: Supreme Court reinstates child porn charges in Lehigh County sexting case
A video of a teenage girl and boy engaged in a sex act circulated among Allentown youths for at least a year before another girl was charged with possession and distribution of child pornography for posting it on Facebook. Although a Lehigh County judge agreed with the girl’s attorneys that the charges were “an overreaction by law enforcement” and dismissed them in 2012, the state Supreme Court on Thursday reversed his decision. The girl, identified in court papers only as C.S., must return to Lehigh County juvenile court to face felony…
Read MoreFormer Lamar Alexander aide, dead in suicide
A former aide to Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) who faced charges of possessing and distributing child pornography, hanged himself and died Thursday in a Maryland home, his family and police officials said Friday. Full Article
Read MoreSupreme Court weighs how much one person should pay pornography victim
A woman with the pseudonym Amy Unknown was at the Supreme Court on Wednesday as justices discussed the horrible events that changed her life: Her uncle raped her when she was a young girl, recorded that assault and other sex acts and put the images on the Internet, where they have been viewed tens of thousands of times. All the justices seemed to think that those who downloaded the images of Amy should pay to help her put her life back together. But they struggled to decide what any one person should…
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