I recently just found out about a bill signed by Gov. Perry that was introduced by Senator Watson. This bill is in regards of the act of young teens sexting. To those who are unfamiliar with "sexting", it is the sharing of sexually explicit images of themselves to other people. This law permits law enforces to charge teens with a Class C misdemeanor. The new generation of kids start having cell phones from a very young age. This, off course gives them the freedom to do whatever they want as they are not being properly controlled. At this age kids don't have the maturity to realize how dangerous can be sending expliciti images of themselves. Child pornography is off course illegal in the state of Texas.
In this case, parents or other adults who catch minors sexting have two options. First one is to either ignore it or just ground them. Secondly, is to report it to the authorities and teens will be charged with a misdemeanor At this time the judge will put them in an education program where they will have classes about how dangerous sexting is, and they will do this instead of sending them to prison.
I completely agree with this law. It can either work or not, it's hard to say that a parent would make their teens go in front of a judge for sexting. As an older sister of a teen I have seen how hard it is to control teenagers in the era. I think making them scared at least will teach them how illegal and seriously dangerous can sending sexual pictures over the phone or e-mails be. It might be an exagerated way to deal with this problem but I think in cases where it problem is out of control this bill will work.
On April 27, 2012, Maria Jaramillo wrote an entry to her blog titled, "New Bill Against Sexting Between Teenagers" in which she discusses a bill passed that specifically addresses teens sending and receiving sexual photos amongst each other. This particular law, called Senate Bill 407, was signed into legislation last year and, while I agree with Maria that this is a good thing, it is my opinion that there are still things we need to work on. I also think that Maria, like many others, has misunderstood and been mislead as to why this law was passed and is under a false impression that it will "work" to stop teens from sending explicit photos of themselves.
ReplyDeleteThis law wasn't made to "scare" teens, as Maria says. This law is simply meant to protect them from the harsher punishments they faced before. Before SB 407 was passed, if a teen was caught sending or receiving explicit and sexual photos of another teen, they would be charged with possession AND distribution of child pornography, which is a felony. This meant that they could face extensive jail time, a felony conviction, and be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of their life. Certain crimes are expunged from a person's criminal record once they become a legal adult, but this particular crime is not one of them. Having this conviction on their record could hinder acceptance to college, job opportunities, and many, many other things that don't cross your mind at such a young age. This bill was created to prevent that. Now, they face fines, a state mandated course for the education on the dangers and risks of sexting, and record of the offense can be expunged at the age of 17.
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ReplyDeleteMaria also talks about "controlling" teenagers and how hard it is, but this law wasn't made to control them or keep them in line, and I don't think it will do much to prevent or remedy this epidemic. The bill has literally made it a lesser offense than it was before and even before, it didn't stop it from happening. Kids are going to do what kids are going to, no matter what their parents or other authority figures say. Instead of changing the laws to save them, we should be doing more. Passing this bill was a great thing and I agree with, so don't get me wrong. I just think more should be done. I think many people want to believe that this law will fix everything, but let's face it... we knew certain laws as teens and we still broke them all the time, right?
I think we should be more pro-active in our approach to preventing this act from being committed in the first place. There are a lot of areas in which teens don't get the proper education from parents, teachers, or counselors, and this is one of them. As per the new law, the offender is required to take a class on the severity of sexting and child pornography. My concern is that this class is being taught as part of the punishment. Shouldn't this class be taught BEFORE teenagers make the mistake of sending sexually explicit photos? Why are we not talking to our kids BEFORE we catch them doing this? I completely understand that having "the talk" with your kids may be uncomfortable and awkward, so certain other topics may also make you feel the same way, but they need to happen. The kids need to be educated and the parents, teachers, doctors, nurses, etc. also need to be educated. In all honesty, their may be some cases where the parent doesn't get through to their child, but sitting back and waiting around for them to potentially wreck their lives is lazy and shows that the adults involved are doing what they can to make it easier for them and do not really have the kids' best interests at heart. In my opinion, that's exactly what this law is. It is a great law because it is better than what we had in place before, but come on-- why are we sitting back and just waiting around for kids to engage in this act before giving them the proper education on the matter? And how are we helping them by ignoring the issue all together?