Dr. Klein FTW!

A young woman named Jesse Logan was essentially teased to death after sending a nude photo of herself to a classmate. Classmates then humiliated and taunted the teen until she committed suicide. A horrible tragedy for sure, but as usual the adults, led by her mother, are in hysterics about "sexting". Dr. Marty Klein wonders when we'll hear about a "Jesse's Law" (following in the footsteps of Megan's Law, Amber Alerts, etc) and addresses the child pornography hysteria on the whole.

He astutely points out:

Arresting these kids for the creation, possession, or distribution of child pornography is a perversion of the law. It turns the 15-year-old who poses into both a victim and a perpetrator (what kind of law does that?). It defines a stupid boyfriend as a snarling predator.

And by watering down the definition of “child pornography,” it undermines our attempts to reduce the actual sexual exploitation of children, and to catch and treat those who would really harm our kids. Real child pornography is a record of child abuse. “Sexting” is a record of adolescent hijinks. Lumping the two together reflects adult anxiety about young people’s sexuality, not a sophisticated understanding of it.

And what about the supposed “dangers” of “sexting”? School counselors, police, even Bill O’Reilly all agree that kids’ lives could be ruined—by insane laws making them lifetime criminals, not by any actual harm. “These photos will be on the internet forever,” we’re warned—yes, and quickly forgotten. And in twenty years, everyone’s physician, accountant, and local sheriff will have nude photos of themselves somewhere on the web. Welcome to the 21st century.

Ironically, the campaign against “sexting” holds kids to a higher standard of judgment than adults. With adults, we generally don’t criminalize poor judgment unless it involves coercion or demonstrable harm. If you take nude photos of your wife, and send them to her friends the day after your divorce, she can call you a bastard (which you would be), but she can’t sue you. She certainly can’t get you on a sex offender registry that lumps you in with rapists and child molesters. But that’s what angry adults like Cynthia Logan want.

This is what boggles my mind about the moral crusaders. While we can all agree that child pornography and child prostitution are horrid practices, how does adding in a lot of flotsam and jetsam help track it down and end it? How does criminalizing those practices among consenting adults or older teenagers help? I swear, these adults who obsess over this subject and see it everywhere are the true perverts. They have a twisted fixation on their child (and by extension, all others) that goes beyond parental care and they project it onto the rest of us, who actually couldn't give two shits about their little brat.

Stop. Think. Think again. And again. THEN react.