Indiana Senators Rush To Put In Place Sexting Law When They Clearly Don't Understand Sexting
from the moral-panics! dept
One of the more recent "moral panics" that we've seen is around this concept of "sexting," where people (often youngsters who might not fully recognize the consequences of what they're doing) send either naked or at least revealing images of themselves to others. In the last year or so the press has written about it quite a bit, and while it seems like it's really just a situation that requires more education for kids to recognize what a bad idea this is, once you get a moral panic going, it's never long before politicians feel the need to "help deal with" the issue, "for the children," of course. Mark sends in the news that some politicians in Indiana have decided to tackle the issue with new legislation, though it's not at all clear that the state Senators debating the subject even understand what sexting means:"Until some terrible tragedy happens where a child or teenager commits suicide because they have been bullied by e-mail, texting or sexting," said Rep. Sandra Blanton.Bullied by sexting will lead to suicide? How? And how do you create a law to prevent that? Then there's the politician who wants to ban mobile phones in schools to deal with this issue:
"Keep them in lockers and not allow them in the classroom or on school property to do the sexting," Rep. Blanton said.Really? The sexting happens on school property? If that's the case, then wouldn't the issue be public nudity -- for which I would imagine there are already laws -- rather than "sexting"? If he just means that the sending of these photos continues on school property, I'm not really sure how keeping the phones in lockers fixes anything. It just means those messages will be sent after school when there's even less supervision of what the kids are doing. I guess that's the head-in-the-sand approach to dealing with things, but I'm not sure how it helps any.
Certainly the issue of sexting is one worth educating kids about, so they recognize the dangers of passing on such photos which can quickly multiply and be spread further in amazingly embarrassing ways. But I don't see how any law helps the issue at all -- but plenty of ways laws can make things worse -- especially when the politicians writing and voting on the laws don't even seem to understand what the issue is beyond "sexting = bad!"
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Filed Under: indiana, law, politicians, sexting
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"Abuse"
Not that I'm defending the law at all - situations where this did have something to do with suicide seem no different from any of the stories about a kid who lets something spin way out of control until they feel like there is no way out. It's a tragedy, but it's not new.
In Canada there are plans to tackle this with an education campaign for grade seven students. As usual, it's not a bad idea in principle but the specifics seem terribly misguided. I wrote a bit more on this on my blog, for those interested in how we are approaching this north of the border.
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There is a simple answer
There is no better way to protect children than to keep them from existing. Once they don't exist, nothing can hurt them.
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Re: There is a simple answer
Now....since I already have six kids between two marriages....how do I get rid of the one's I have???? Should I convince them 'sexting' is a good idea....so they'll be forced to commit suicide? I mean, that's the point of the Rep from Indiana right?
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Re: There is a simple answer
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Bah!
: P
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Re: Bah!
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Re: Re: Bah!
The plan is fool-proof.
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Re: Re: Re: Bah!
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I believe suicide is already illegal
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Re: I believe suicide is already illegal
I have a feeling that politicians have no clue of the real world. The schools around here already have a policy of no cell phones in the classrooms.
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Is it an election year?
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Im surprised there isent a twitter group just for this yet.
"We must stop sexting!"
"How many kids are doing it?"
"ALL OF THEM!"
(stupid people)"we must put all child porn makers in jail, its for the children"
"Vary well, all children will go to jail!"
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the linking article
Still teen sex is what teens do best.
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Re:
Witch begs the question; why are these people freaked out about cell phones when digital cameras are cheaper, easier, and better?
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Business as Usual
I honestly cannot remember the last time I heard of a law being meticulously contemplated or the issue even vaguely understood by a politician attempting to control it. Often they do not even know the text of the law they're passing.
I'm so glad my fellow constituents vote to force me to give my tax dollars to politicians so they can control my life better than myself in all their wisdom and unselfishness...
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From Indiana
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Re: From Indiana
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Re: From Indiana
As a fellow resident of IN, allow me to state that they do this even when they DO have important things to work on.
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Look on the bright side
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forgot at a letter
FORGOT A "T"
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Re: forgot at a letter
And seriously though, in person like before cell phones was way better. Not only did we see it in person, if we were quick, we could try to get a feel in too!
Kids today don't know what they're missing. It may be easier to get to see the goods if you're behind a cell phone, but it's no replacement for the real thing.
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Remember
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Pi_Bill
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Slogan
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Is this in response to this case?
http://nwitimes.com/news/local/porter/article_bf8bdbf3-952e-5382-9f2e-6224eefaa3c2.html
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Re: Is this in response to this case?
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Re: Re: Is this in response to this case?
The issue is its middle school students in possession of his/her naughties, which btw; child porn and child exploitation is an adult offense.
Apparently we hold adults to higher standards for some reason. WTF EVER!
In the words of a song I remember...
... "... yeah the whole world is buy'n"
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The New Sexting Law!
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Then Again.......
P.S. STOP BLAMING THE MEDIA IF YOUR KIDS SETS THE HOUSE ON FIRE. HE PROBABLY GOT THE MATCHES FROM YOU.....WHEN YOU WERE NOT WATCHING ;)
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Bullied by sexting will lead to suicide? How? And how do you create a law to prevent that?
Bullies isn't the right word how about Harassed, intimidated, blackmailed, tortured to name a few.
Picture yourself a naive young girl eager to make friends finds her self in an awkward coming into womanhood stage. Unknowing that Joe Bob the school jerk who has just woo'ed you into a revealing situation is currently blackberrying the entire student body or worse threatening to do so unless you submit to whatever whim.
Lets get real people by 12 these kids have guns drugs and condoms. No matter how much you want to wear blinders its ugly out there for a child. Don't forget it.
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ironically, I'm reading this on my droid
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Getting some perspective.
Prime example why child porn & this issue will always exist but we should leave it to the parents not the law.
Man, couple, woman buys porn. Comes home and hides it. Kids go in to get something and find said porn. Pop in later after parents are gone. Yay!
Girlfriend wants to see boyfriend's junk but still a virgin and doesn't want to get started and regret it later so ask boyfriend for something sexy. Monkey see monkey do, bit of pun intended.
Somewhere in between point a to point b we forget sex is natural regardless of age. Only in the last 200 years have we adopted this weird thing where only after 10 years of bleeding and living every month can we actually have children.
Most people forget 200 years ago you were named at age 10-12 in a ceremony because of mortality rates.
Most people forget that a young adult starts at the age of 12.
Most people forget that sex regardless of age will happen.
We have forgot that regardless of age, is how much we learn from our experiences is the true mark of wisdom.
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Re: Getting some perspective.
young adult
double speak
teenager
Thus the need for only one word.
Orwell 1984 is a manifesto, and this isn't being cynical its just looking at the past 20 years.
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Laughter, followed by sadness
Although I guess they *could* just be stupid.
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Moral Panics.
It criminalizes and opens the door to stupid people in power to go after anyone they like they could even target that little b"#$%& from the neighbours because he simply don't like the child, it will put enormous stress(financially and socially) on an already stressed out public machine for something that should be viewed as part of the maturing process of youngsters they don't know about sex, they don't know about bad things that happens so they do it, they didn't get humiliated, exposed or have been fired yet because of such things but they will and individuals learn how to deal with those things(at least some of us others don't).
We are not talking about "rape" here when somebody forces another no matter the age the aggressor should be extracted from society in some manner so he can't cause any harm. We are talking about natural social behaviour that although could be wrong or right it is a problem for citizens to deal with not the government and I think all this attention and this negative light may cause more psychological harm than good.
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Sexting isn't just pictures, and shouldn't be a sex crime
And giving prosecutors discretion on how to handle sexting cases--making sure than hormone-fueled teenagers aren't being charged as sex offenders for sexually explicit text messages or pictures--should be state law everywhere. It's absurd that consenting minors with bad judgment should have to be on sex offender registries.
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Modern law does not. A suicide attempt does not send you to jail unless it was in a public place (disturbing the peace and/or civility), even then, in court you can give the distress or duress argument (which is a perfectly okay thing to do).
The law is stupid, yes, as in this "sexting" case which is ridiculous (and just a way to bring more money and further inflate the actual numbers of crime), but suicide is NOT a crime.
(By the way, I'm from Texas. One of the 'dumbest' states in the nation.)
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