In July 2009, Reason magazine published my feature, "Anatomy of a Child Pornographer," which examined the phenomena of teen sexting, and the ramifications -- legal, emotional, political -- of one incident in upstate New York.
Today's New York Times runs, on page 1, "Poisoned Web: A Girl's Nude Photo, and Altered Lives," a fabulous and comprehensive piece covering the same issues, this time in the state of Washington, with a school administrator and prosecutor two years further down the line, and having learned the behavior will not change, only the way it is handled when handling becomes required.
The subhede to my article was, "What happens when adults catch teenagers 'sexting' photos of each other? The death of common sense." The Times piece shows, at least in this instance, the grown-ups keeping cool heads. Kudos to them, and to the Times' writer, Jan Hoffman.
I think the law in this case is a complete ass. But so is the kid who sent out her photo. If you don't want your naked picture to go viral, don't send it in the first place.
Posted by: Zev | March 27, 2011 at 01:30 PM