ACLU suing overzealous sexting prosecutor

Parents of three teenage girls and the ACLU are suing a Pennsylvania prosecutor who threatened to bring child pornography charges against the girls unless they agreed to probation and counseling. The complaint filed by the ACLU explains:
In February 2009, [DA] Skumanick sent a letter to the parents of approximately twenty Tunkhannock students, including the ACLU’s [...]

Sexting, the Latest Innovation in Porn

From David Rosen at Counter Punch:
Sexting is the first innovative form of pornography to organically emerge in the 21st century. … Sexting not only subverts corporate technology, but democratizes it. 21st century media technology makes everyone a moviemaker, distributor and presenter. Sexting makes everyone, including teenagers, pornographers.

Shaming, not “sexting,” was behind Jesse Logan’s suicide

Commentary from Sex in the Public Square:
Jesse Logan killed herself last July not because of the “dangers of sexting” but because of the dangers of sex stigma and “slut shaming.” … Jesse Logan did not fall victim to the “perils of the Internet”. She feel victim to the perils of cruel high schoolers who used [...]

Today Show guest on sexting: “It is normal for them”

Teen ‘sexting’: Youthful prank or sex crime? – Today Show:
[Attorney Larry] Walters pointed out that if an adult shares revealing photos of nude adults with other adults, it’s not a crime. But if kids share similar photos of other kids, it may be. … “We are holding kids to a higher standard than adults who [...]

Dr. Laura blames everyone for sexting suicide

Dr. Laura weighs in on teen sexting. Girls have “always” been hopefully desperate, yet are now corrupted by an “openly sexual environment”:
The openly sexual environment that children are exposed to makes these behaviors (like oral sex in middle school classrooms and bathrooms across the country) seem like the norm for the day. Girls have [...]

Sexting-related suicide

Friends Hope Teen’s Death Warns Others Against ‘Sexting’: MSNBC article about an 18-year-old’s suicide due to the harassment that ensured after her boyfriend shared a nude picture of her without her consent.
This article is more sympathetic to the girl involved than most news stories on sexting. However, it still essentially blames girls for taking the [...]

Entirely reasonable article on sexting

Judith Levine in the American Prospect: “What’s the Matter With Teen Sexting? Sex and predatory adults are not the biggest dangers teenagers face online. Their main risk is garden-variety kid-on-kid meanness.”