blah,

what are you going to do?

Making it illegal won't stop it, it will just label a bunch of kids texting eachother as pedophiles for the rest of their life.

Is a 14 year old who gets a picture of his 14 year old girlfriend's boobies in a message a child pornographer?

Should they have to divulge that they are a "sexual predator" to every potential employer and never get a job?

Should flyers be handed out in every neighborhood they ever live in saying "this guy (insert their picture) is a convicted sex offender"?

Should they be victims of hate crimes against them by people who don't know why they were labeled a sex offender for the rest of their lives?

All because they had an effing girlfriend when they were 14?

Of course not. It would be dumb. Unfortunately the field of lower education attracts dumb people a lot of the time, and this is what some school administrators are turning it into.

I honestly don't know why we're making sex and nudity so forbidden in the first place.

It's natural =\

Oh, wait. That's right. We try to avoid that.

Teens will be teens, and will be stupid. Sexual texting shouldn't be illegal, though perhaps showing around picture should be. Like, it would be okay to get a naked picture of your girlfriend, but not okay to forward it to your whole phonebook. Also, I think that someone over twenty-one shouldn't have a photo of someone under eighteen- like they aren't allowed to have sex with someone under eighteen. I think this would prevent it from becoming true child pornography.

This is silly. The purpose of outlawing child pornography was to keep children safe from those who would take advantage of them. When two tweens are sexting, are they taking advantage of each other? I think not.

Besides, I think that minors (at a certain age) should be given more control over their bodies. For example, as an aspiring artist/photographer, I take a lot of nude/semi-nude self-portraits that I'm not allowed to show anyone because of my age. Bullshit.

Okay so would rather teens be out there having sex or sexting?? Sexting is jus anotha way of sex you will find that most teens that invole in sexting dont do anything with their bf/gf accept maybe kiss and feel so why make it illegal gona do it anyway..

Sexting is actually just written phonesex.

The sending of photos does not have to occur concurrently.

So, no, sexting itself should not be illegal. But child pornography is illegal.

The laws of child pornography were created to protect children from adult predators or children being used for profit because as we all know pornography is a very profitable business not to keep them from the natural want to see people there age that there attracted to naked and technology has allowed teens to meet people who don't live near and they can't really do anything with them this is why sexting has sprung up I mean at 16 they can legally have sex but they can send a picture of themselves naked consensually? I think it's absurd that they'd be labled as sex offenders and felons for it

while I think it's right when they send these private pictures to other people with out permission from the person it's off but in a consensual manner how is it wrong?

no because what if the teen is in a really good relation ship and they did not want to take it to far. wat about child preaditor goin ton their record that is not cool. i say let their parents handle it and if that cant be then they shold not be a parent.

It is there choice if they want to do it let them and nif something goes wrong its there fault and they don't need to cry about it........

Some states are changing laws to "lessen" the charges? What? Topless pics are NOT a crime, nudity is not the same as sex. Too many people wrongfully conflate the two and nude pics are completely legal at any age. Unfortunately even those that should know better wrongfully conflate the two and teens end up getting wrongfully charged with a crime (and sometimes convicted). The problem is the way the laws are written, it leaves too much open to individual interruption Don't believe me that nude pics at any age are legal? Look up Jock Sturges, David Hamilton, or many other famous nude photographers. You can buy their books legally because sexual images and nude images are two different things.

Also, even if it the pics are sexual, so what? Half of teens have sex before they graduate high school (and that is a conservative estimate). Many states have consent set at 16 years old but if you take a pic you can be charged with a crime, how can this possibly make sense to anyone? Criminalizing teens in order to "protect" them, isn't protecting them, it's harming them for life! Leave your moral argument about sex before marriage out of this, and teens shouldn't have sex out of this... Just as you had a right to decide that issue for yourself, so do they, not you. Yes, teens do need to be educated on disease and pregnancy (and in my opinion have free access to healthcare professionals, as well as condoms).

Also, the argument some make, that if the pics get out they embarrass the teens and leave them open for bullying is inherently illogical. It puts the power in the bullies hands and subjugates everyone else. The issue isn't solved by discouraging innate human sexuality, but rather empowering teens to make their own decisions and be proud of their bodies. The power to embarrass someone isn't in a picture, it's in the way society (and the individual) react to it.

i think it's sick. But as sick as it may be it's still 1st ammendment rights. Last thing you want is government to make a law against it telling you can't take pictures of yourself naked it's your own right if you want to. Once they do that then what else you don't want to give big brother anymore control than you have to.