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posted by martyb on Saturday September 05 2015, @12:10PM   Printer-friendly
from the sense-no-makes dept.

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.]

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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday September 05 2015, @05:12PM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Saturday September 05 2015, @05:12PM (#232667) Journal

    The Magna Charta might be deemed a form of jury nullification. The one and only source of "justice" prior to the MC was the judgement of some pompous royal ass. The peasants of the time decided that enough was enough, and insisted that the people have a voice. The royalty yeilded, rather than be executed.

    Seeing that our law is directly based on English Common Law - yeah, the PEOPLE decide what the law is, not the ruling class.

    In another post, you mention "respect for the law"? I have none. The circus we have today is sometimes entertaining, and sometimes tragic, but it is simply not deserving of respect.

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by CRCulver on Saturday September 05 2015, @06:37PM

    by CRCulver (4390) on Saturday September 05 2015, @06:37PM (#232693) Homepage

    The peasants of the time decided that enough was enough, and insisted that the people have a voice.

    The Magna Carta was something that was drawn up by Canterbury to make peace between the king and a group of disgruntled barons. It was meant to provide a better balance of power between the king and the feudal aristocracy. While the Magna Carta had an iconic status for reformers in later centuries, the peasantry had nothing to do with the Magna Carta, and none of the freedoms it outlined were applicable for the peasantry. How could you not know this?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05 2015, @09:51PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05 2015, @09:51PM (#232759)

      How could you not know this?

      What can you expect from someone who doesn't use Gamemaker for all their programming needs?