6 Pennsylvania Teens Face Child Porn Charges For Pics of Selves

mikesd81 writes "MSNBC reports six Pennsylvania high school students are facing child pornography charges after three teenage girls allegedly took nude or semi-nude photos of themselves and shared them with male classmates via their cell phones. Apparently, female students at Greensburg Salem High School in Greensburg, Pa., all 14 or 15 years old, face charges of manufacturing, disseminating or possessing child pornography while the boys, who are 16 and 17, face charges of possession. Police told the station that the photos were discovered in October, after school officials seized a cell phone from a male student who was using it in violation against school policy and the photos were discovered at that time. Police Capt. George Seranko was quoted as saying that the first photograph was 'a self portrait taken of a juvenile female taking pictures of her body, nude.' The school district issued a statement Tuesday saying that the investigation turned up 'no evidence of inappropriate activity on school grounds ... other than the violation of the electronic devices policy.'"

Comments

Re:Take this as a lesson

[MozeeToby]

Most phones also have this crazy thing called a 'delete' button that removes unwanted pictures or messages from your phone. Now granted, I sopose it would be possible to report someone and then spam their phone with pictures right up until the moment the phone is taken and searched, but I imagine that the police would catch on to that kind of thing (though with kiddy porn, you never know. Police are notoriously stupid on this subject). And of course, in order to send the pictures you must have them yourself, which is very dangerous ground to be on.

The real problem is that just making the accusation (even without the pictures on the cell phone) is enough to get a person fired from their job and ostracized by the community. Child porn is one of the few offenses in America where the rule is guilty until proven innocent beyond any shadow of a doubt. Even if you are eventually proven innocent, the stigma remains and many people have to completely change their life in order to live normally again.

This is going to be an interesting case to watch, we can only hope that the judge and jury assigned to it are smart enough to handle it correctly. Logically, the law should probably read similar to some states's statutory rape laws, where if the 'victim' and 'perpetrator' are close enough in age the punishment is less severe or eliminated entirely. The girls who took and sent the pictures will probably get off with a slap on the wrist, but I am concerned about the guys in this case. I could see them unfairly winding up in jail or a sex offender's registry all too easily.

Re:child pwnography

[cbiltcliffe]

Redundant, my ass! That's FUNNY!!!

Re:Think of the children

[Archangel Michael]

OR

The kids can actually OBEY the rules (gasp, horror) and not use cell phones in violation of campus rules!

Typically, kids are warned "put the cell phone away" several times before confiscation. So, the kids gawking at naked pictures of their classmates caused suspicion and probably ignored the repeated reprimands.

You know, sometimes the kids actually deserve to get caught. I know that all these "rules" are a pain, but if you teach contempt for rules (even if you don't like them) you'll end up with people who CAN NOT fathom why there are any rules in the first place, and who don't know which rules to follow, so they end up SHOCKED when the rules are enforced.