Your kid may be a child pornographer

October 10, 11:59 AMCivil Liberties ExaminerJ.D. Tuccille

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A 15-year-old Ohio girl faces child pornography charges, including illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material, a second-degree felony; and possession of criminal tools, a fifth-degree felony. She has pled guilty on both counts and may be classified as a sexual offender, although the judge has some leeway because she is a juvenile.

What depraved act brought the weight of the law down on her head? She took nude photos of her self with her camera phone and passed them along to friends.

That's right. Photos of herself. According to the news report:

The section of the law the girl, who is a foster child, was charged with allows parents or guardians to take photos of their unclothed children for a list of acceptable purposes but does not provide an exemption for the child themselves.

The law itself can be found here.

State Rep. Jay Hottinger, the hot-to-trot legislator who pushed through the law that paints a girl as a felon for photographing herself concedes that the penalty may be a bit excessive, but insists that taking pictures of yourself is, indeed, a terrible act. "Clearly it was an unacceptable act, and there needs to be consequences from that, but we need to make sure the punishment is a reasonable punishment."

Color me appalled. I assume Hottinger know that the girl's actions will be perfectly legal just three years from now, when she's 18.

While authorities elsewhere have been somewhat more restrained than those in Ohio, the opportunities for passing out child pornographyy convictions for consensual acts between minors and camera phones are abundant. In April, the Columbus Dispatch reported, "Experts and high-school students both say that teens -- particularly girls -- are increasingly using naked pictures, raunchy messages and promises of no-strings-attached sex to get attention or nab a boy." And in June, seven high school freshman at New Jersey's Pascack Valley High School were suspended for sharing provocative photos. In Boulder, Colorado, elementary school kids have been caught doing the same thing.

The Boulder incident was resolved between the parents, which seems like a vastly preferable means of dealing with the problem than felony convictions and prison time.

Nobody should be happy about kids exposing themselves for the world to see. There can be emotional and personal consequences to such activity, and the younger the children, the more serious the risks. That is, efforts to head off sharing of raunchy photos and videos among kids should be aimed at protecting those kids from their own actions, not dragging them on a tour through Hell for harming anybody else. 

But as we try to protect kids from their own poor judgment, it looks like we're going to have to protect them from overzealous legislators and prosecutors too.

Contact J.D.: civilliberties (at) tuccille.com