Teens prosecuted for racy photos

Found on CNet News on Friday, 09 February 2007
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Teenagers taking risque photos of themselves are prosecuted for violating child pornography laws.

Combine unsupervised teenagers, digital cameras and e-mail, and, given sufficient time, you'll end up with risque photographs on a computer somewhere.

On March 25, 2004, Amber and Jeremy took digital photos of themselves naked and engaged in unspecified "sexual behavior." The two sent the photos from a computer at Amber's house to Jeremy's personal e-mail address. Neither teen showed the photographs to anyone else.

Amber and Jeremy were arrested. Each was charged with producing, directing or promoting a photograph featuring the sexual conduct of a child. Based on the contents of his e-mail account, Jeremy was charged with an extra count of possession of child pornography.

In other words, under Florida law, Amber and Jeremy would be legally permitted to engage in carnal relations, but they're criminals if they document it.

Wolf speculated that Amber and Jeremy could have ended up selling the photos to child pornographers ("one motive for revealing the photos is profit") or showing the images to their friends. He claimed that Amber had neither the "foresight or maturity" to make a reasonable estimation of the risks on her own. And he said that transferring the images from a digital camera to a PC created innumerable problems: "The two computers (can) be hacked."

This is one of the most ridiculous things I've heard lately. So much for all the fuss about protecting children with new draconian laws and privacy loss. All this could have been handled with some foresight and a little talk; instead, they'll end up with a criminal record. Imagine the joyful situations when they have to explain their police clearance certificates to employers in a few years. They will probably end up on the lists of suspects whenever something raunchy happens in their area.