What is the appropriate punishment for sexting?

Do you think sexting should be a crime?

Yes

And if so, what is the appropriate level of punishment?

Kiddie porn is kiddie porn, once produced electronically, the genie is out of the bottle.

IMHO Senger's approach is measured and probably a good idea to offer counseling on the first offense.

We expect responsibility in operating a car which is a lethal weapon when used improperly; with electronic imagining responsibility also needs to be observed.

Nudity is not a crime. It should be allowed.

In France you can go to most beaches and observe nudity of both adults and children. France is not an undeveloped third world country. It is a progressive country living in the 21st Century.

Once you have seen a nude body, it is no big deal. People in France walk by each other on their beaches just like we walk past each other in Centennial Beach.

We should not be making crimes of nudity.

Nudity is no big deal.

Let us concentrate on more serious crimes such as rape, pedophilia, and murder. Those are crimes we should be concerned about.

Iranian Ayatollahs think Americans are criminals for allowing our kids to walk on beaches with skimpy bikinis and speedos. Americans think the French are criminals for allowing their children to walk on beaches nude.

In essence we are reactionary thinkers just like the Ayatollahs. If a parent wants to take their children to the beach and swim nude more power to them. BTW, we have many nudist organizations that swim nude with their families throughout the United States of America. Last time I checked there was nothing illegal about these nudist colonies. They love their bodies and have a right to show them off. More power to them just like the Progressive commerical states.

This smells of something that will be abused as a law.

While I understand her POV, I can also envision someone taking a potential 'political cartoon' and twisting the 'intent' into something it was never meant to be and charging someone with a crime as a result.

There is a fine line of discretion that must be walked as a prosecutor with a law like this on the books. Do you trust the current DA's to make the proper call; or do you see them going on a witch hunt for stupid things never 'intended' to be caught by this law ?

Though it's probably an unpopular idea, I don't think it should be punished in the courts. Let the parents punish the kids for their inappropriate behavior in their own home.

The idea of a fifteen- or sixteen-year-old being labeled a sex offender for the rest of their life - lumped in with violent rapists and child molesters and God knows what else - is absolutely ridiculous, and those who support this idea should be ashamed of themselves.

And what should the "penalty" be for 2 kids playing "doctor"? Does it really matter if 2 kids play the same game face to face or simply play it out thru modern technology?

Is it really necessary to criminalize every aspect of our daily life?

Even the aspect of adults vs minors with this can be problematic when one kid is 17 and the other one is 18.

And who should the guilty party be? The person who sends the message? The person who receives the message? The person who views the message? The person who forwards the message or prints it or puts it out on the internet for others to see?

I agree with the sentiment in this thread so far. To label a 16 year old girl who sends her 16 year old boyfriend a racy photo a sex offender for the rest of her life (or their lives, I suppose) seems to me to be a gross misinterpretation of the intent of the laws regarding sex crimes and child pornography. This is something that should be handled by the parents, the damage to the reputation of the teenagers involved is punishment enough.

Do we need to have legislation for absolutely every aspect of our lives and our children's lives? I completely agree that rape and other forms of sexual abuse should be punishable by the full extent of the law, but to treat someone who sends a bare-chested MMS to another teenager in the same manner as someone who raped a child is downright lunacy.

Someone with a brain seriously just needs go to through all the ridiculous laws on the book with a red marker and start crossing off everything that violates common sense. Something tells me that person would need an awful lot of markers.

I think some people are missing the point. The purpose of Senger's proposed law is to make the punishment less extreme for first time offenders. It is my understanding that a kid convicted under the current law may be required to register as a sex offender for the reset of his life. The proposed law recognizes that kids make stupid mistakes, and that not all of these mistakes are so severe that the punishment should follow them around for the rest of their lives. I do wonder if community service, a term paper, etc. are harsh enough penalties, though.

Don't children have parents anymore?

I naively thought that it was a parent's role to teach morals, provide direction, and shape a child to the environment. This would include punishing aberrant behavior like sexting.

Have things gotten so bad here that we need more laws to provide parenting for children? perhaps we should add the role of parenting to our teachers and through another $25k ayear to their salaries?

Have we gotten so PC here that we cannot figure out the difference between child porn and stupid children doing stupid things?

I mean, really! Kids have been "playing doctor" and "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" for generations --- the difference is that now we have readily-accessible phone cams and the internet. As a society we need to catch up with the technology and NOT write a law for every little occurrence we can think of.

Perhaps we should actually try to use our judgement?

I know the trial lawyers, politicians, and D.A s from around the land usually get in the way of common sense, but we can always fire them!,/a>

I generally agree with the tone so far on this thread. The government needs to get out of legislating our personal lives. This trend, whether it be the "family values Rep. or we want to protect you Dem., they all just need to butt out of our lives. There was a time in this Nation when the laws were relatively few, relatively simple, and generally based on the need for social and fiscal order. At some point this was hijacked. We need to stand up for common sense and personal freedoms.

As for nudity and sex. The less Puritanical developed nations also enjoy the fact that de-criminalizing sex & nudity has led to a drastic reduction of rapes, molestations, etc... You can find crime statistics all over the web that point to us having the stats of a third world nation in this arena. The primary difference is our outdated concepts of "morality" and "protecting the children". You cannot honestly say that because all the children in Western Europe are exposed to these things they all grow up to be deranged sex maniacs as some would have you believe. The facts say the opposite. When a mature approach to the topic is taken by parents and sociey at large, you end up with less deviant behavior.

I'm sure we will eventually hear from all the religious wack jobs on this fairly soon....let the fireworks begin!

To stand before your peers in school or church and explain to everyone what you were thinking, while standing in-front of a big screen image. Then hope those images don`t come back to haunt you later in life.

This law is entirely unnecessary. If the intent is, as stated by Rep. Senger, to make sexting a lesser offense than existing child pornography offenses, can anyone cite a single example of a teen being prosecuted for a sex offense based on those existing laws? If not, there would appear to be no real problem requiring a new legislative solution.

Legislators feel compelled to do something topical to justify their ongoing existence and re-election. I suppose when it is your job to "make law" that sort of comes with the territory. But the result is over-legislation. This is just one of many prime examples.

I wouldn't want my child labeled as a sex offender if he/she used poor judgement and sent a racy pic to a girlfriend/boyfriend.

However, what about the photo that a girl sends to her boyfriend 'for his eyes only' that gets sent to everyone in his address book after a difficult break-up? What if the photo was texted to numerous receivers as a vengeful act? What if it were sent to just one other person without the permission of the person photographed? What if the person photographed were a minor and it is sent to an adult?

Lots of gray areas that are food for thought.

In January 5 teens in Pennsylvania were charged with distributing child pornography. The three girls had sent pictures to a couple of boys they knew. All 5 involved were charged.
In Wisconsin, a teen boy was charged after posting pictures his girlfriend had texted him on the internet.
In New York a teen boy faces 7 years in prison for sending a pic his girlfriend sent him to friends.
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/14/child-pornography-sexting)
Those are just the ones I found running a quick 30 second Google search. I am sure there are more. And with such a huge media blitz covering the issue right now, it's possible that someone on a "mission" could decide to file charges on these issues every chance they get.

The problem lies in the fact that some (not all) teenagers do stupid things at times, often not thinking of the consequences. The way the law is currently, the ramifications could be very serious and the punishments are pretty strict. They could be facing being registered on the sex offenders list and jail time. Darlene Senger is trying to modify the law in Illinois so that each instance can be judged on a case by case basis and some leeway can be allowed if it's warranted. It may be warranted to be a little lighter on punishments in the case of these teens, who while they may be somewhat stupid to think these things aren't going to get spread, are not in the same league as rapists and other child pornographers.
(Thank God my kids aren't that stupid.)

It does seem that some people on here thought that she was trying to make the punishments more severe. I would suggest the moderator place the link to the article he is referencing in his comments at the top. That way people who may not have read the article can link directly to it before commenting.

Get out the red markers and the law books!!! I've heard it said that you can't legislate morality. This sexting issue grew from lots of other problems----children leap before they look, and need lots more supervision from all the adults around them. We can't enforce the laws we have, why would we make another one?? I do think that there could be some education for underage cell phone users---explaining the laws and proper phone usage---including cost to whoever pays the bills.

How about arresting the parents of the "kids" found guilty of sexting? We hold the parents responsible when their minor children commit vandalism, how about holding them responsible for this? It might make the problem go away pretty quickly.

And how about the parents, are they checking what's stored on their kids phones? I'll bet the parents are paying the bill, and I would also bet that little "johnny" or "sally" would cry about privacy if the parent demanded to see their phones.

Of course the real problem is this: We have gotten to the point where a 15 year old could more than likely sue their own parent for invasion of privacy if the parent dare's inspect a phone that they themselves pay for!!!

To Anonymous @ 1:34

I'm with you on this issue. It always surprised me when other parents were shocked when I told them that I looked at my kids' Facebooks and Myspaces regularly. I was told I was invading my kids' privacy. How can you be invading their privacy by looking at something they were posting online? And the phones? We are paying for them at this point. Until they take over their contracts and pay for their phones themselves, then we have the right to look at them if we have some sort of concern over how they are using them. That goes for computers too.

Luckily we have managed to raise two level headed kids who honestly have nothing to hide anyway. They make good choices. Maybe they would have made good choices regardless of those things. But it may also be that they knew that they had parents who were on top of things and bad choices could come back to haunt them. Who knows. There definitely seems to be a lack of parenting nowadays. Parents are supposed to be parents with all that entails, not best friends and buddies with their kids. You can be friends later after you have finished your job of raising them and they are out on their own. It is possible to raise kids who make good choices, (like not drinking before they are 21), don't expect everything to be handed to them on a silver platter, and also have a desire to give back to the world and community in some way. The word No needs to be used sometimes!

Remember, folks, that the perpetrators are the same juvenile delinquents whose educations are being funded by OUR tax dollars and whose parents are obviously not doing their job of parenting! So the taxpayers should have a say-so in what should be allowed on school property. It's quite obvious that the Naperville police and/or school administrators have little to no way to catch these sexting criminals; so I recommend treating the cause instead of the symptom: have a complete ban on the use of cell phones while on public school property. You can't engage in "sexting" without a cell phone, and students' 100% focus during school hours should be on studying/learning. Education without the distraction of cell phones worked for centuries. It can work again in 2009.

Simple solution to stopping this. Call your cell provider and have that feature blocked on your kids phone. If every parent of minors did that we wouldn't need this bill. You can still send text messages but not pictures. Parents are paying more for that on most plans. We have that feature blocked on our daughters' phone and limited texting. She goes over she pays. No need to give the kids unlimited texting. Teach them selfcontrol on texting just like anything else. More importantly, teach them what happens when your indulge in something. Eventually you're going to have to pay for your actions.

I'm with Anonymous - How about parents take some control?? And kids learn some self control.

There are so many real problems that our legislators need to deal with...

How about a law that makes the parents of a minor pay a fine or do community service if their child is caught sexting? I believe parents are the ones that have failed in this situation, and the children are the victim of the failure.

For those that say, "you parents are simply not parenting", I have to ask, uh...really? I love people who come on there and think THEIR kids won't do this or that. Or better yet, THINK they have complete control of their kids. I checked Myspace and Facebook, I checked computer history and text messages, but I still can't say with 100% certainty that my child NEVER sent a sexy photo to their GF or BF. BUT, if they did and were "caught", it is up to ME, their parent, not legislature, to decide on the consequences.

I was that teen who was 16 and my Bf was 19. And yes, we were sexually active. If there had been sexting, we would have done it. That does not mean we were bad kids or had bad parents. We were "in love". But in today's world, my BF could have been labeled a sex offender for the rest of his life..and that is just WRONG.

This world is not a very good place to have to make it up to the law to punish kids for sexting. Kids will be kids and I have a son who has sexted. He admitted it to me and I forgave him. I don't think the law should be involved in those things with children. If the persons parents don't care enough to say anything then it is the parents fault. I know that my son is madly in love with his fiance and they have sexted before. she is also 3 years older than him. she is 20 and he is 17. if they were to be caught, she is labelled a SEX OFFENDER!?!? That is so stupid!! Children make mistakes, and i'm not willing to let the life of my future daughter'in'law be destroyed by the stupid government's ideas to crack down on screwy kids. there is no way on earth to classify the good kids from the bad. the law should be on a personal charge basis only. Meaning that the only people that should be allowed to get someone in trouble for sexting would be the people themselves involved. Yes i think/know sexting is wrong. But am I going to be ok with my son and daughter-in-laws future being destroyed because she is older than him and is labelled, kicked out of school, and blacklisted because of the government and their feeble attempts to regulate young adults and pre-adults from sending things to eachother to show how much love they have or to help get rid of the pain of separation or alot of things that could be positive about this just because alot of things also aren't.