Later this month, a North Carolina high school student will appear in a state court and face five child pornography-related charges for engaging in consensual sexting with his girlfriend.
What's strange is that of the five charges he faces, four of them are for taking and possessing nude photos of himself on his own phone—the final charge is for possessing one nude photo his girlfriend took for him. There is no evidence of coercion or further distribution of the images anywhere beyond the two teenagers' phones.
Similarly, the young woman was originally charged with two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor—but was listed on her warrant for arrest as both perpetrator and victim. The case illustrates a bizarre legal quandry that has resulted in state law being far behind technology and unable to distinguish between predatory child pornography and innocent (if ill-advised) behavior of teenagers.
The boy is being charged with child pornography for taking pictures of himself.
[These teens were of the age of consent in North Carolina and could legally have had sex with each other. Juvenile court jurisdiction ends at age 16 in North Carolina, however, so they are being tried as adults on felony charges of possessing child porn... of themselves. -Ed.]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05 2015, @02:43PM
If they don't make some sort of bad plea deal, that is.
(Score: 3, Informative) by hendrikboom on Saturday September 05 2015, @06:34PM
It seems the girl already has made a plea deal -- pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, ended up with a year's probation and a cellphone ban.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by tathra on Saturday September 05 2015, @11:19PM
and that's the entire goal right there, to scare them into taking a plea deal so the prosecutor can pad his stats. that's pretty much the entirety of our legal system these days, terrify innocent people into taking pleas by threatening to charge them with all kinds of things they'd never be found guilty of, but the risk of having to spend 20+ years in prison scares them enough to take probation or a small jail sentence even if they're totally innocent because they know the system has been broken for decades.