What is more important, the right to free speech or the mitigation of some supposedly pornographic materials? Apparently, this is the question that will be decided by courts now after a Pennsylvania teenager who had her topless pictures sent to her middle-school classmates is asked to be prosecuted with pornography charges.
The American Civil Liberties Union, however, countered this request by saying that the photo was from the definition of child pornography, which typically depict sexual acts with children and distributed for commercial use. They also chided the Pennsylvania prosecutor who forwarded the case for threatening the teenager, along with 15 others, with felony charges if they did not agree to undergo a "re-education" program.
The Tunkhannock School District in rural northeastern Pennsylvania reported the case to the prosecutor;s office after it found the pictures in the cellphones of the 16 teenagers. Most of the families of the teenagers agreed to the re-education program, but three refused. Now the prosecutor is pressing charges against one of the girls.
The pictures showed two of the girls in training bras, while one of them was showed topless with a towel wrapped around her lower bodies. According to the parent of one of the girls, she thought that the photos were far from being pornographic and erotic at all. There are more provocative photos in a catalog of Victoria's Secrets, said the mother.
But the prosecutor said that the pictures were still pornographic because they were sent to stimulate people in a sexual manner and that they may be used by child molesters.
This is the first US case that will evaluate the constitutional merits of "sexting."
Seriously, I know that this is a not good example to follow, but to charge pornography cases against the teenagers who were just having fun is too much, in my opinion. Can't they have the privacy that they need?
