By: Doug Mondell
It’s the oldest story in the book: sixteen-year-old girl “sexts” sixteen-year-old boy explicit pictures of herself, and boy “sexts” girl back. Well, maybe it’s not the oldest story, but it seems like pretty normal teenage activity, right? What’s not normal is that both teens were charged with distributing explicit material to minors. When I hear that someone has been charged with distributing explicit material to minors, I assume that an adult sent explicit pictures to a minor, not that two minors were “sexting” each other. Luckily in this case, the two teens charged were able to take plea deals and avoid jail time and/or sex offender status. However, the teens are on probation and must submit to random, warrantless searches. Additionally, the judge ruled that neither party should be allowed to use a cell phone for an entire year (#totesunfair). Others in the future, however, may not be so lucky.
As if it’s not bad enough to make teenagers criminals for “sexting,” making them sex offenders is really appalling. Being a sex offender results in an awful stigma that teens would then have to carry around with them for the rest of their lives, simply for taking a picture of themselves naked. I find it hard to believe that this is what the legislature intended to have happen when they passed statutes such as distributing explicit material to minors. Laws like this were put in place to protect children from adults who are inclined to act inappropriately with them. I can only assume that North Carolina is using this law to punish teens because they are sexually active. In a state where abstinence is a major part of sexual education classes in schools, I guess I’m not surprised.
Currently, North Carolina schools stress abstinence-only sexual education, with some information about contraception thrown in as well. However, state legislators are now trying to pass legislation that will allow Focus on the Family to completely overhaul sexual education and teach abstinence-only sexual education exclusively. It has been made clear, by the criminalization of two minors who did nothing wrong, that North Carolina is simply trying to scare teens into not participating in any kind of sexual activity whatsoever, and in doing so, further promote their message of abstinence until marriage. Laws are not enacted to punish innocent individuals, and it appears that North Carolina needs to be reminded of that fact.
Doug is a Staff Member of the Journal of High Technology Law. He is a current 2L at Suffolk Law concentrating in Trial and Appellate Advocacy. He graduated from The Ohio State University in 2011 with a B.A. in International Studies.
