The Law with Teens and Nude Photos
Composition 101 October 18, 2012 In Dahlia Lithwick’s article “Teens, Nude Photos and the Law”, she talks about how teen boys and girls are sending nude pictures to their boyfriends or girlfriends. They use their mobile devices like cell phones, ipod, computers and their cameras to send their nude image. She then addresses the consequences of the nude photo that the teenager has received. The teenager that received the photo can be charged with a felony of child pornography. The author then discusses why the teenager should not be treated harshly.
She states that many of the teenagers are still immature and they don’t know the consequences of sending nude photos to each other. In her article she argues that the criminal justice system is taking it too far in charging the teenagers as child pornographers. I agree with the author because there is a real problem with criminalizing sexting as a form of child pornography. The teenagers caught with the photo will be charged with child pornography. Child pornography is a serious offence and can stay forever on your lifetime record and mess up your life.
The majorities of the teenagers that are charged with the crime are not even predators, but a picture like has big consequences if it’s ever to get out on the internet. In my first argument, Dahlia Lithwick states that the teenagers are being punished to harshly. (Lithwick 492) She is right the charges against them are too severe. They can stay on their record for a long time or even forever. If the teenager would go look for a job and they were to pull up his records and they find that he has a child pornography offence, they won’t want to hire him.
Who would want to hire a person who takes images of kids? It is a serious offence too people all over the world, but its a big charge just for a teen. Especially if that teen is a boy and receives a random photo on his cell phone and it’s a nude photo of his girlfriend and she is drunk. It’s not his fault that she is drunk. She is a drunk and underage girl. Teens don’t know any better. Many, well most of the teenagers are all still immature. Many think that being 18,17,16,15 they think they are grown when they really are not.
Most all the teenagers don’t know fully what’s right from wrong. There mind is not fully developed and when something goes wrong the kids that think that there grown, go straight to their parents for help. That’s why they have grown parents to help them in life. That’s why all the judges that prosecuted the teens as child pornographers can’t forget that they were too once teenagers. The people that make up the criminal justice system can’t forget that they once too did stupid things when they were little.
At least once they of had to receive on photo of their girlfriend or boyfriend nude. Many of the times the kids do it for fun. They think its being sexy. The kids these days are not the same as the kids from a long time ago. We have so much technology now, that it help us communicate better with people and not be able to do those things. Dahlia, in her article states “We seem to forget that kids can be as tech-savvy as Bill Gates but as gullible as Bambi. ” (Lithwick 493). She is right, teenagers now a days are tech smart. They know how to handle a phone better than our parents.
What teenagers don’t realize when taking bad images is that there putting themselves in a bad situations. There can be digital dating violence. They can use those images and put them on profiles like face book. Recently there was a page on face book of girls that are nude. The girls that were put out there were very upset and they wanted the site shut down. They were mad at the creator who made the site but it not his fault it’s the girls who took the images and gave it out. The site was out for a while and a lot of people got to see it.
Right after pretty much the whole world saw it they finally took it down. Now the girls that were seen on the image are now marked for life or for a long time. People that know her will remember that she was in a bad photo. That’s when the teens realize that they did wrong but many still don’t learns there lesson. They are still going to be doing it because of relationship pressure. Most girls are the ones that are getting taken advantage off. The criminal justice system should change the way they label children as child pornographers.
They are just making things worse. They need to find a way a better way to help solve the problem. Labeling children with these names are not going to help it stop. They need to show proof that its actually killing and hurting people emotionally. There have been many accounts of teens being depressed because of a bad photo. The system needs to stand up and help out the ones who are victims of these situations. They need to label the right people with these labels because teens are not dangerous. The older people can be charged as hild pornographers because they are grown and they know of what they are doing. Those are the only ones they should be charged. Over all, Dahlia Lithwick has a point, teens all over are being charged with child pornography for sending and receiving nude photos of their girlfriends. The police said that by sending nude photos girls can put them selves at risk and that has serious consequences so they put a severe consequence on them. They shouldn’t label them at a young age just for a nude photo, there teens, they can be immature.
