Sexting
September 6th 2010 06:58
"The laws governing 'sexting' should be overhauled so naive teenagers sending raunchy images are not lumped with serious sex offenders, experts say. Under current legislation children who send sexually explicit images or video of themselves to others can face child pornography charges and even be placed on the Sex Offenders Register."
-- Jay Savage, "'Sexting' laws need urgent review: experts", Friday 12 June 2009
I think the main issues when considering law reform here are:
1. Firstly, to put it bluntly (though too crudely), one doesn't want to encourage child porn or create loopholes for it.
2. But it does seem to be an injustice that people who "naively" send photos of themselves should be subject to criminal charges. After all, it doesn't seem (at least to me) that they've harmed anyone (including themselves), or done anything morally wrong.
In practice, the law in these cases might be rarely enforced: "[T]he attorney-general will have discretion as to whether people under 18 are charged with child sex offences for sending sexually explicit material via their mobile phone" -- AAP, "Kids could be charged over 'sexting' on mobiles", 18 March 2010. However, in Australia and the US, teenagers have been charged for sexting offences, or have been threatened with being charged.
I suppose it should also be said that even if police tend to turn blind eyes in most of these cases, the fact the law's there is still burdensome -- it still impinges on people's freedom from domination, and all it really takes is someone to lodge a complaint for legal processes to start.
3. Thirdly, there's a sort of inconsistency in message/doctrine, or a sort of irrational inconvenience. In NSW, for instance, it's legal to consent to sex when you're 16, but illegal (I'm told) to SMS a nude photograph of yourself to your partner until you're 18.
There are similar age-related discrepancies in other sex-related legislation. For instance, it's legal for two adults to spank each other, but illegal to film the act. Or, in Queensland, it's legal to have vaginal sex when you're 16, but not legal to have anal till you're 18.
More broadly speaking, there are an inconvenient number of ages of consent in the law generally -- age of sexual consent, marriage age (usually lower than sex age), age of drinking, age of gambling, age for viewing this or that material, age of voting, age of criminal responsibility, etc. There might well be good reason for the differences -- but surely, on the face of it, consent is consent, and the same level of intellectual development is required in all these areas?
Two more thoughts:
1. I still think education is better than regulation here -- that it does more good, and does less bad.
2. But if there's to be legislation, perhaps it should target the people who pass on an image in breach of someone's wishes and to their detriment (potential humiliation, reduction of job prospects, etc) rather than the person who willingly sends a photo to their partner.
Thinking more broadly again, perhaps there's a case to be made, generally, for giving people a property interest in their images, with the right to restrict how an image is used, whether they're children or adults.
-- Jay Savage, "'Sexting' laws need urgent review: experts", Friday 12 June 2009
***
I think the main issues when considering law reform here are:
1. Firstly, to put it bluntly (though too crudely), one doesn't want to encourage child porn or create loopholes for it.
2. But it does seem to be an injustice that people who "naively" send photos of themselves should be subject to criminal charges. After all, it doesn't seem (at least to me) that they've harmed anyone (including themselves), or done anything morally wrong.
In practice, the law in these cases might be rarely enforced: "[T]he attorney-general will have discretion as to whether people under 18 are charged with child sex offences for sending sexually explicit material via their mobile phone" -- AAP, "Kids could be charged over 'sexting' on mobiles", 18 March 2010. However, in Australia and the US, teenagers have been charged for sexting offences, or have been threatened with being charged.
I suppose it should also be said that even if police tend to turn blind eyes in most of these cases, the fact the law's there is still burdensome -- it still impinges on people's freedom from domination, and all it really takes is someone to lodge a complaint for legal processes to start.
3. Thirdly, there's a sort of inconsistency in message/doctrine, or a sort of irrational inconvenience. In NSW, for instance, it's legal to consent to sex when you're 16, but illegal (I'm told) to SMS a nude photograph of yourself to your partner until you're 18.
There are similar age-related discrepancies in other sex-related legislation. For instance, it's legal for two adults to spank each other, but illegal to film the act. Or, in Queensland, it's legal to have vaginal sex when you're 16, but not legal to have anal till you're 18.
More broadly speaking, there are an inconvenient number of ages of consent in the law generally -- age of sexual consent, marriage age (usually lower than sex age), age of drinking, age of gambling, age for viewing this or that material, age of voting, age of criminal responsibility, etc. There might well be good reason for the differences -- but surely, on the face of it, consent is consent, and the same level of intellectual development is required in all these areas?
***
Two more thoughts:
1. I still think education is better than regulation here -- that it does more good, and does less bad.
2. But if there's to be legislation, perhaps it should target the people who pass on an image in breach of someone's wishes and to their detriment (potential humiliation, reduction of job prospects, etc) rather than the person who willingly sends a photo to their partner.
Thinking more broadly again, perhaps there's a case to be made, generally, for giving people a property interest in their images, with the right to restrict how an image is used, whether they're children or adults.
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