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posted by janrinok on Monday January 01 2018, @12:53AM   Printer-friendly
from the punishing-the-victim dept.

Child porn law goes nuts: 14-year-old girl charged for nude selfie

A 14-year-old girl is facing charges in Minnesota juvenile courts that could lead to her being placed on a sex offender registry—all for taking a nude selfie and sending it to a boy at her school. Prosecutors say that she violated Minnesota's child pornography statute, which bans distributing sexually explicit pictures of underaged subjects. But a legal brief filed this week by the ACLU of Minnesota says that this is ridiculous. Charging a teenager for taking a nude selfie means the state is charging the supposed victim—an absurd result that the legislature can't have intended when it passed Minnesota's child pornography statute, the ACLU argues.

The case is being heard by a juvenile court in Rice County—about an hour south of the Twin Cities. Because this is juvenile court, there's a lot we don't know including the name of the teenager. We don't even know if the selfie in question was a photo or a video. What we do know comes from the ACLU's legal brief, which includes a brief description of the case. According to the ACLU, the anonymous teen sent a nude selfie to a classmate over Snapchat. The recipient apparently took a screenshot of the message and shared it with others at school without the girl's consent. One of the classmates alerted the police in Faribault, Minnesota, which is presumably where the girl goes to school.

Officials decided to charge the girl with the "felony sex offense of knowingly disseminating pornographic work involving a minor to another person." An adult convicted of this crime can face up to seven years in prison. As a 14-year-old, the girl in this case isn't facing a criminal prosecution in adult court and won't face the harsh sentence an adult might face. The problem, the ACLU notes, is that if she's found guilty she is likely to be placed on a sex offender registry, where she would face the same stigmas as someone who commits violent sex crimes. That could lead to difficulties finding a job or obtaining housing. The ACLU's brief doesn't mention whether the boy was charged for distributing the girl's photo to other classmates.


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 01 2018, @01:25AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 01 2018, @01:25AM (#616294)

    Many adults have been put on a sexual offenders list for peeing outside and getting caught. I find this absurd.

    So I welcome this prosecution -- because nothing like this is apparently going to get fixed until things get even more absurd. This is more absurd, so things are advancing nicely. Sorry about the stupidly trusting girl, though.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 01 2018, @03:31AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 01 2018, @03:31AM (#616330)

    And this is why if anyone is ever required to inform me they are a sex offender I will respond with informing them the category has been rendered meaningless to me by cases like this.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 01 2018, @07:40AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 01 2018, @07:40AM (#616373)

      And then do you offer them candy and invite them into your van?