Ridgewood Sexting Scandal – Should Kids be Prosecuted as Child Pornographers? [POLL]
When kids commit adult crimes like texting nude images of themselves, only to have those images retransmitted to other kids, should they be prosecuted?
It keeps coming up time and time again; and there seems to be no solution in sight.
Schools get involved, as they normally do, since they act as de facto parents; and the parents are shocked and dismayed that little Johnny or Jane are becoming the next generation of porn stars, unwittingly of course, on the web.
So what to do?
Punish them, how?
Under the current statues of transmitting child pornography?
Which, to me, seems a bit extreme.
The latest “scandal” happened in tony Ridgewood.
Police have called for an amnesty period to allow students to delete the images without fear of prosecution.
Police are investigating claims a number of female Ridgewood High School students sent nude photos of themselves to at least one male student, only to find the images posted on the Internet.
Several parents and students told Patch Wednesday that multiple Ridgewood High School girls sent the nude photos using the "Snapchat" application, which destroys photos between 2 and 10 seconds after they're received.
An unidentified male student, expecting the images, took screenshots of the illicit photos and posted an Instagram gallery, multiple people familiar with the situation told Patch.
Ridgewood school administrators became aware of the incidents on Friday and initiated a joint investigation with Ridgewood police. Ridgewood Superintendent Dan Fishbein sent a notice warning parents of the potential dangers.
"These incidents happened off school grounds and are being handled by the police," Fishbein told Patch Wednesday afternoon. "If it is determined that students broke school rules then we would handle that administratively as we do with all student issues."
In a letter sent to parents on Wednesday, Fishbein said police have called for an "amnesty period" for those found to have created, transmitted or possessed any illict images or movies.
Students who have the images must delete them before the amnesty period ends at 7:00 a.m. on Monday, or face possible prosecution for possessing/distributing child pornography.
Prosecuting them as child pornographers means significant jail time, plus, if I’m not mistaken, notification as Megan’s Law offenders.
Do you really believe this is the way “sexting” should be handled?