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14 year old girl, almost a sexual predator..

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PeteEU

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New Jersey Girl Posts Nude Photos Of Herself, Gets Probation

TRENTON, N.J. — A 14-year-old New Jersey girl who posted nude pictures of herself on MySpace.com will have child pornography counts dropped.

The Passaic County Prosecutor's Office says the girl must undergo at least six months of counseling and probation and must stay out of trouble. If she does, all charges will be dropped.

The Clifton teen was initially arrested and charged with possession of child pornography and distribution of child pornography. If convicted on those counts, she could have been required to register as a sex offender.
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This is just one of those.. "wtf are they thinking" moments. Here you have a 14 year old posting nude pictures of herself and she is the one getting busted to almost being registered as a sexual predator for life?

What the hell was this prosecutor thinking off?
 
It's wrong that she's being punished at all. It's her body and if she wants to post nude pictures of herself then so what? However, if I knew her, I'd probably advise her that it's not the smartest thing to do in a society as uptight as ours.
 
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Similiar cases like this have already been to court. Lookinto Jock Sturges. Sally Mann and Robert Mapplethorp also come to mind.
 
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Arcana XV said:
I agree. Dropping the counts was the right thing to do.
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With probation, yes.

If she brakes probation then show her no mercy. Is there any way to mark those photos so that any innocent person who finds them on their computer one day can be immune to child porn charges?

This 14 y/o has produced something which can end marriages, careers, and livelihoods. She deserved to be punished criminally, and civilly if anyone else suffers for her pictures.
 
Jerry said:
Finlay a prosecutor with some common sense.
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How so? he was the one that brought the charges in the first place! Should never have been a case in the first place.
 
Jerry said:
With probation, yes.

If she brakes probation then show her no mercy. Is there any way to mark those photos so that any innocent person who finds them on their computer one day can be immune to child porn charges?

This 14 y/o has produced something which can end marriages, careers, and livelihoods. She deserved to be punished criminally, and civilly if anyone else suffers for her pictures.
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Sounds more like we have other stupid laws to repeal.
 
Jerry said:
Repealing those laws would endanger children, so it sounds like we have stupid 14 year olds to prosecute.
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Considering that even a sexually explicit drawing of a nonexistant minor is now considered child pornography, I think the laws have surpassed protecting children from endangerment. In fact, is it not child endangerment when children are being prosecuted for taking pictures of their own bodies?

I would never condone repealing laws that strike at the possession and distribution of child pornography, but at a certain point common sense has to step in.
 
Jerry said:
With probation, yes.

If she brakes probation then show her no mercy. Is there any way to mark those photos so that any innocent person who finds them on their computer one day can be immune to child porn charges?

This 14 y/o has produced something which can end marriages, careers, and livelihoods. She deserved to be punished criminally, and civilly if anyone else suffers for her pictures.
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Believe me, I know exactly what you mean. I'm just not sure putting her on a sex offender's list is the answer.
 
Jerry said:
With probation, yes.

If she brakes probation then show her no mercy. Is there any way to mark those photos so that any innocent person who finds them on their computer one day can be immune to child porn charges?

This 14 y/o has produced something which can end marriages, careers, and livelihoods. She deserved to be punished criminally, and civilly if anyone else suffers for her pictures.
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Minors, especially teenagers, are insane with wild hormones and their brains are physically changing shape as they mature. There are times that their thinking caps physically don't work.

You can't even begin to come close to applying a standard to a teenager similar to you apply to an adult. This "no mercy" crap is going to destroy lives before they've even begun.

Take her computer, and if you have to, send her to juvie. This way she gets punished harshly but doesn't have a record which follows her around for the rest of her life.

It's entirely possible that this isn't just hormones, but a bad household situation blossoming. "No mercy" just means she's ultimately going to get screwed rather than get help.
 
Jerry said:
Repealing those laws would endanger children, so it sounds like we have stupid 14 year olds to prosecute.
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First of all, how does it make any sense to prosecute a 14-year old for sexual activity when legally, 14-year-olds are deemed incompetent to give consent to sexual activities?:confused:

Prosecuting people who utilize sex slaves of any age in order to make porn makes a lot of sense.

But as your previous post alluded to, it doesn't make sense to prosecute "innocent" people for mere possession of child porn because:

1. Some 14 year olds look like 18 year olds, and vice versa. It's very difficult to accurately tell what somebody's age is on a video, that's why 7-Eleven clerks are supposed to check ID for people who look under 30 instead of those who look under 21.
2. Videos that advertise in their titles that they are of underage people aren't always of underage people, as i learned when I myself was underage and wanted to see people my own age but instead got granny/gay/animal/standard porn.
3. As you implied, there are innocent people who end up with child porn on their computer without even seeking child porn. While most of them were likely seeking porn of some kind, that's not always the case.

We don't need laws to prosecute people for possessing child porn. If anything, they're using an outlet to manage their unfortunate drives in a way that does not harm others. However, if the video depicts somebody being sexually victimized in any way, then the person who did the rape should be found and prosecuted. This girl was taking a picture of herself, so clearly nobody is victimized. If somebody bought child porn from anybody where people get sexually used against their will, they should be required to cooperate in the investigation of those who produced the porn.
 
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TacticalEvilDan said:
Minors, especially teenagers, are insane with wild hormones and their brains are physically changing shape as they mature. There are times that their thinking caps physically don't work.

You can't even begin to come close to applying a standard to a teenager similar to you apply to an adult. This "no mercy" crap is going to destroy lives before they've even begun.

Take her computer, and if you have to, send her to juvie. This way she gets punished harshly but doesn't have a record which follows her around for the rest of her life.

It's entirely possible that this isn't just hormones, but a bad household situation blossoming. "No mercy" just means she's ultimately going to get screwed rather than get help.
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That's what we call "felony stupid", yes.
 
Jerry said:
This 14 y/o has produced something which can end marriages, careers, and livelihoods. She deserved to be punished criminally, and civilly if anyone else suffers for her pictures.
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Joke? A grown person finds nude pictures of a 14 year old and it's her fault? Isn't the bigger problem that the adult was looking for nude pictures of a 14 year old?
 
Smoke[MaxX] said:
Joke? A grown person finds nude pictures of a 14 year old and it's her fault? Isn't the bigger problem that the adult was looking for nude pictures of a 14 year old?
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People have been arrested and convicted for downloading child pornography by mistake. They were just looking for regular porn. Also, if this picture shows up on a search and whoever is looking at it doesn't realize this is an underage girl and keeps it on their hard drive, they will be charged for possession.
 
Arcana XV said:
People have been arrested and convicted for downloading child pornography by mistake. They were just looking for regular porn. Also, if this picture shows up on a search and whoever is looking at it doesn't realize this is an underage girl and keeps it on their hard drive, they will be charged for possession.
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Not only is this true, the situation is even worse than that.

The difficulty with trying to explain this to (most) people is that it calls their confidence in the American justice system into question. On the one hand, there are a lot of legal loopholes and poorly worded law that police and prosecutors are using as a sword (rather than as a shield, as the law was intended) for the sake of political and financial gain, and it's hard to ignore these when they're put right in your face. On the other hand, to admit that the justice system is as out of control as it is means admitting that anyone, even your own loved ones, can get snatched and stuck in a hole at any time irrespective of whether or not they are "good" people.

Ignore the truth, or accept that you're screwed: not an easy choice for an honest, hard-working person to make.
 
Arcana XV said:
People have been arrested and convicted for downloading child pornography by mistake. They were just looking for regular porn. Also, if this picture shows up on a search and whoever is looking at it doesn't realize this is an underage girl and keeps it on their hard drive, they will be charged for possession.
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While I wouldn't be surprised at the lengths our justice system will go to when there's a media frenzy over child predators on the loose (or whatever), I don't understand how you can legally get away with having sex with a minor (as long as you have no reason to suspect that she's under the age of consent) but you can't have these pictures even if they say that she's 18 and she looks 18.
 
In the United States, virtual child pornography, which are sexually explicit drawings or computer generated images of children, are illegal even if they depict a child that doesn't even exist. While I consider such things to be in really bad taste, I still find it strange that people are being arrested and convicted for materials depicting fictional characters. Under the current laws, an adult posing as a child could be deemed as child pornography. It doesn't even matter if a person knows they have been exposed to child pornography. There has even been a case of a person who was convicted for a single thumbnail image in their internet cache.

[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PROTECT_Act_of_2003]PROTECT Act of 2003 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
 
There's been a lot of this sort of thing in the news lately, and I've been trying to figure out what to think about it.

Of course I'm against child porn. It exploits children and underage teens (which I categorize as two seperate groups, in a way).

But what about when the child/teen IS the "pornographer"? When they took the pics themselves and shared them willingly? When the exploiter is also the victim, who do you punish?

Boys of 12 and 13 have gotten in serious trouble at school and been threatened with criminal action because some 13yo girl took a nude pic of herself and sent it to their cellphone, and they kept it. HOW MANY TEENAGE BOYS have the common sense and self-discipline to delete a pic of a nude girl they know under that circumstance? Probably not so many...their brains are awash in hormones, the impulse-control structures of their brains are still mostly mush.

I don't think treating these things like felonies, or throwing these kids in prison or putting them on sex-predator lists for life, is the answer. I think treating it like what it is, namely KIDS DOING STUPID THINGS (like they've done since time immemorial), and appropriate non-criminal discipline applied.

When you catch an adult pornographer exploiting underage teens, throw the book at him. If he's exploiting pre-teens, hang him by his nads as far as I'm concerned. But here we're talking about teenagers doing stupid teenage things... I don't think it rises to the level of felony criminal justice punishments.


G.
 
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