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[old manatee]

Side topic, but how come the parents of the football players got their own meeting separate from everyone else's.

Always shocked to see the jocks receiving special treatment.

 

[The Llama]

Yeah, but let's face it, a lot of teens share pics of each other. That is privately done between two people. You wouldn't punish them for having sex, so it makes no sense to seriously punish them for sending nude snaps to each other.

The key here is educating students in sex ed class: letting them know that being pressured and pressuring for nudes is not cool, that sharing pictures is against the law and that it gives you a criminal record, that there is always a risk with pictures shared on the web, etc.

Of course, teen hormones are going to override everything else here, and they will continue to share pics. But a lot of these kids simply don't understand the law, or understand that a good boyfriend wouldn't pressure for nudes, etc.

I totally agree with you, but it's still technically illegal.

 

[Limited Edition]

Simple solution. Go through all the phone records. Prosecute all the kids sharing photos not sent to them by the original photo taker themselves for distribution. Leave everyone else alone. Spares as many people as possible, while still sending a strong message that this shit isn't a good idea.

Oh, and pray none of those dipshits uploaded the pictures to the internet, because once that happens the pictures are out in the wild forever.

 

[Stinkles]

Cultural norms do change, I hope you know.

Mass broadcast of nude selfies isn't a norm, or it wouldn't be a news story. We've basically given cavemen a bunch of guns and now we're checking in on them to see how it's working out.

 

[Polari]

Crazy. I remember the first time I saw pussy. It was in the 3rd grade, and my friend Javier brought a Polaroid of his brother's girlfriend (they where in middle school at the time) getting DPed..that was in the 80s. Times are a changing..

Things were much more innocent back then.

 

[Konka]

Mass broadcast of nude selfies isn't a norm, or it wouldn't be a news story. We've basically given cavemen a bunch of guns and now we're checking in on them to see how it's working out.

I'd argue with you and say that sexting has absolutely become a norm.

 

[B.O.O.M]

A sexting ring? This is actually a thing?

Weird world or maybe i'm just getting old

 

[Stinkles]

I'd argue with you and say that sexting has absolutely become a norm.

I'm talking about uncontrolled distribution.

 

[Northeastmonk]

Teens are gonna sext and I don't see how we're ever going to stop it. I just hope that we don't start prosecuting them all...

Thing is, once it's online someone has it. Send that to like a million other pervs and sooner or later they're the poster child in CP. It's not only illegal, but it could even be deadly.

 

[hodayathink]

Side topic, but how come the parents of the football players got their own meeting separate from everyone else's.

Maybe because if the football team really was the center of this, then the whole thing would have turned into the parents of the players having to defend themselves against the other parents, instead of actually discussing what they should do as a whole?

 

[TwoDurans]

So there are nude photos of .63% of this town going around? I wonder if that's a record.

 

[BigMack]

On Thursday night, separate community meetings were held for parents of football players and parents of other students to address the scandal...

Bet that sure went over well. Especially with the parents of the "Other" kids.

...

-note to self-

screenplay

Pretty sure this was already an SVU episode in the last season or two.

 

[CS_Dan]

I have a question ...if you sext when youre like, 16, what happens if you keep the picture and any shared after youre 18? If 5 years after youre outta high school you find the picture again?

This, to me, is the real issue. Even if these photos don't get spread outside of the group, these are still naked photos of children. Just because they're the same age as the person in the photo now doesn't mean they will be if they keep it (even accidentally) for a few years. The context changes completely with time.

 

[hydrophilic attack]

So, two things could be going on here. There could be voluntary sharing of pictures where the people depicted themselves shared the pictures to everyone that has access to it. And there is nothing wrong with that. No kids should be punished for that, even though they probably will (this is America after all).

But there is also a strong possibility that there has been sharing of pictures without consent. That the people depicted shared the pictures with someone voluntarily, but that this person, at a later time, spread these pictures on without the consent of the people depicted. That is horrible behaviour, and I hope people who actively spread nudes without consent from the people depicted will get some kind of punishment. Of course, there young age should be taken into account, but just giving them a slap on the wrist would send them the wrong signal.

 

[Bubba_Sparks]

I mean, as long as no adults were involved I don't see what needs to be done outside of some sexual education on how to use protection.

EDIT:

But there is also a strong possibility that there has been sharing of pictures without consent. That the people depicted shared the pictures with someone voluntarily, but that this person, at a later time, spread these pictures on without the consent of the people depicted. That is horrible behaviour, and I hope people who actively spread nudes without consent from the people depicted will get some kind of punishment. Of course, there young age should be taken into account, but just giving them a slap on the wrist would send them the wrong signal.

Never thought about it like that! Good point hydrophilic! It could easily have been like, "hey, such and such sent me nudes, take a look!" Then snowballed from there. Though with 100 or more people it must have been numerous pictures of different people.

 

[Yukiari]

before smartphones, people fucked, but they didn't carry nude photographs of themselves and others around

Before smartphone it was instant messengers, before that it was chat rooms. This is just another way.

 

[Loakum]

They should have the entire school sit down in an auditorium, and have their principal yell at them for hours saying, "stop taking butt-naked pictures of yourself!" Yelp.

 

[The Spoony Hou]

Police is at loss on how to proceed? They have nothing to do with this. School should set up some sex ed classes, that's all.

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

My High School years starting to sound really lame right now.

 

[NimbusD]

It's not the sexting, but the distribution of the photos.

wtf do you think a sext is?

 

[entremet]

wtf do you think a sext is?

Please read the thread.

 

[Fusebox]

Before smartphone it was instant messengers, before that it was chat rooms. This is just another way.

What was before chat rooms?

 

[……forgetit]

What was before chat rooms?

Back seat of a car I think?

 

[Yukiari]

What was before chat rooms?

Hmm, Polaroids?

>.> I'm from the chat room generation.

 

[……forgetit]

Hmm, Polaroids?

>.> I'm from the chat room generation.

Camera phones and MMS were just getting bug when I entered highschool. We did the same thing as these kids but you had to squint at the shitty quality pictures.

 

[JaeCryo]

I've just completely never understood why sexting is such a common thing...

It's a such a terrible idea with little payoff, high risks, and way easier alternatives... not to mention they're usually way higher quality...

It's a really stupid thing to do in my opinion, so it's hard to feel sympathetic for any of these kids.

EDIT: We had a problem with this in my High School when a chick made a solo-porno and it started floating around.

Problem was she was 17 so it was really hushed up and secretive.

Spoiler

She was like a 7 anyway...

 

[……forgetit]

I've just completely never understood why sexting is such a common thing...

It's a such a terrible idea with little payoff, high risks, and way easier alternatives... not to mention they're usually way higher quality...

It's a really stupid thing to do in my opinion, so it's hard to feel sympathetic for any of these kids.

Never been in a distance relationship I'm assuming?

 

[Gordon Shumway]

Things were much more innocent back then.

LOL sure..

 

[Foffy]

What these kids did could be seen as potentially reckless, considering that age range of people can be very shady and twisted. Using images as blackmail, sending them out to people who weren't considered to be shown them, etc.

That's far more important than shitty evocations on what is socially "right" and what deserves "punishment in the eyes of the law." Cry me a river if you want to stand on that bridge. Realize laws amount to subjective evocations, and the binary acceptance of them turns examples like this into major grey areas, because we're so fucking dumb.

 

[7DollarHagane]

Fine the parents for the waste of municipal resources and time. Maybe they will learn to look into what their kids are doing or get them a flip phone instead. 16 year olds don't need smartphones anyway.

 

[bengraven]

There is literally no way to stop this from happening.

It's just what happens afterwards you'll need to deal with. Prosecuting those over 18 in possession of them, preparing for bullying by upping the amount of psychiatrists you have in your schools and training them properly, I don't know.

 

[Kangi]

I'm okay with punishing kids who spread nude images of someone else without their consent. Not okay with charging a kid with child pornography because they sexted someone or someone sexted them.

The sheer scale of this makes things... very tricky. I can't imagine this is only staying within their circle. I also can't imagine all of the kids involved consented to having their pictures mass circulated, and if they did... well dang. Hope those in charge handle this well; I don't know what I'd do in the same situation.

 

[BriGuy]

Was I the only one who clicked this thread hoping it was a story about someone flying a crop duster over a school and dropping copious amounts of porn on it?

 

[SapientWolf]

They've created a sophisticated CP ring without any outside help, and there could be thousands of more just like it. Imagined if that shit leaked. This is an Armageddon scenario for investigators. And jailing kids isn't a slam dunk win for them either. It's not a popular move.

Maybe parents should keep a closer eye on those cell phones.

 

[Gallbaro]

They've created a sophisticated CP ring without any outside help, and there could be thousands of more just like it. Imagined if that shit leaked. This is an Armageddon scenario for investigators. And jailing kids isn't a slam dunk win for them either. It's not a popular move.

Every High School and some Middle Schools definitely have this going on to some extent.

 

[……forgetit]

They've created a sophisticated CP ring without any outside help, and there could be thousands of more just like it. Imagined if that shit leaked. This is an Armageddon scenario for investigators. And jailing kids isn't a slam dunk win for them either. It's not a popular move.

Maybe parents should keep a closer eye on those cell phones.

Every school in the country has kids sending naked pictures to each other, I guarantee you.

 

[NimbusD]

Please read the thread.

I did? Your sentence just didn't make sense. A text is still considered distributing (child) porn and would most likely be dealt with similarly.

Anyway, this is an interesting situation, it seems like on the surface, everything was just willing teenagers being stupid. Of course if there was coersion it should be dealt with accordingly. There's always such blurry lines when it comes to this shit because it's including kids in the ages where they're just coming into adulthood and the court system is pretty black and white on whether it considers you a responsible adult or a kid who just should have known better. Being as there's kids across different ages, most likely a handful will wind up getting scapegoated for the whole thing. I don't really have faith that the law handles these situations, especially in the modern age, in any way that actually punishes dangerous people and recognizes that some people are just stupid and horny kids.

 

[marrec]

Destigmatize sex, educate kids on distribution of sexually explicit photos and safe sex blah blah...

I feel like this is partly the fault of the puritanical nature of the US and our uncomfortability of talking to teens about sex.

Yea, this is happening all over.

 

[JaeCryo]

Never been in a distance relationship I'm assuming?

I'm gonna go on a limb and say the vast majority of sexts aren't done as a result of "long distance" relationships.

But no I haven't.

 

[Brakke]

"Everybody's doing it" crowd doesn't see the difference between sexting with someone specific and carrying around a trove of hundreds of pictures, whose subjects don't know you have them?

 

[Team Filler]

Destigmatize sex, educate kids on distribution of sexually explicit photos and safe sex blah blah...

I feel like this is partly the fault of the puritanical nature of the US and our uncomfortability of talking to teens about sex.

Yea, this is happening all over.

Can't be emphasized enough, we really need to demystify talking about sexuality and try to combat the taboo around nudity. Our hangups and ignorance filter to the kids no matter how hard we try to prevent it from doing so, and starting with ourselves would be a good step forward.

 

[Zips]

Always shocked to see the jocks receiving special treatment.

If the football team members were at the center of it all, I imagine the separate meeting might have been done to try and keep the parents of the kids not on the team from ripping apart the team members' parents.

 

[……forgetit]

I'm gonna go on a limb and say the vast majority of sexts aren't done as a result of "long distance" relationships.

But no I haven't.

Fair, but that said the general motivation is the same, sexual contact but separated due to distance or situation. Sexting is fine if done responsibly, much like all sex, but can be disasterous if abused, like all sex again.

 

[JaeCryo]

Fair, but that said the general motivation is the same, sexual contact but separated due to distance or situation. Sexting is fine if done responsibly, much like all sex, but can be disasterous if abused, like all sex again.

You're right.

Just on general principle though, it seems like a high risk-low reward thing to me.

 

[hodayathink]

Every school in the country has kids sending naked pictures to each other, I guarantee you.

This isn't just about kids sending nude photos. This is about some of them having hundreds of them on their phone of many different people, some legitimately sent to them and others gathered and sent to them from friends (probably without consent). That's why this isn't as simple of a case as some people in this thread want to think.

 

[Fnord]

Who are the parents outraged at? Their children? Themselves? Certainly not the school.

That was my first thought, too. Sadly, I suspect that the parents are pissed at everyone not responsible and not at all pissed at their kids. Because that's America at this point.

 

[……forgetit]

This isn't just about kids sending nude photos. This is about some of them having hundreds of them on their phone of many different people, some legitimately sent to them and others gathered and sent to them from friends (probably without consent). That's why this isn't as simple of a case as some people in this thread want to think.

Oh, yeah that's more confusing.

 

[jesu]

Never been in a distance relationship I'm assuming?

I have and I have partaken in such shenanigans, but these kids haven't and aren't.
I'd be way to self conscious to send naked pics when I was at high school I reckon!

 

[psynergylover]

People wanna fuck.

shit, then my game is on point, never needed to send photos to get some ass

 

[Fnord]

This isn't just about kids sending nude photos. This is about some of them having hundreds of them on their phone of many different people, some legitimately sent to them and others gathered and sent to them from friends (probably without consent). That's why this isn't as simple of a case as some people in this thread want to think.

In a certain sense, though, it is pretty simple. Don't want naked pictures of yourself floating around on the Internet/text messages - don't send anyone naked pictures of yourself. Not assuming that those pictures will get out is naive.