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back to article US judge bars teen 'sexting' charges

A federal judge has temporarily barred a Pennsylvania prosecutor from filing child pornography charges against three teenage girls who took nude or semi-nude pictures of themselves. The decision is the latest wrinkle in a nationwide phenomenon known as "sexting," in which teenagers armed with cell phones photograph themselves …

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  1. kain preacher
    Dead Vulture

    title

    "Does that mean if someone sends me child porn I can go to jail, even if i abhor it?"

    "but just being sent it I doubt would be covered by the law."

    If you are in possession of it when the cops come yes . Think of it like this. If I send a pound of weed to 100 Clifford Ave but I mess up and say 100 Clifford St, the person at 100 Clifford st is screwed if the cops find out. Does not matter. You are in possession

    "Exactly! Surely, even in the US, it is illegal to confiscate someone's personal media and then peruse them without a warrant or similar?"

    First off minors have less rights than adults. Secondly it was done in school. Schools have the right to confiscate items from students that is on the prohibited list . Here is another twist. Do to the rabid nature of the anti drug people, it was decided in some states that a minor would have no legitimated use for pagers /cell phones in school setting . There for the made it illegal for minors to have them on school grounds

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @kain preacher

    Drug law, another wonderful area that has lots of laws that have been made up so people can look tough on an issue.

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @DR & AC 13:35

    DR: Darn right I'd be concerned. I'd be concerned that people were getting raided over bikini pics. Goodness knows I have "worse" in the family photo album.

    Alright I admit there are presently no young people in the family to be afraid for, but if there were, that wouldn't be too high on my list of reasons to worry. Not unless it was combined with some overt suspicious behavior on my neighbor's part.

    AC: Whether these girls did anything wrong at all, is for their parents to decide. And yes, an old pervert, e.g. Bill Henson, can claim first amendment protection too, provided the pictures are not obscene or pornographic.

    And hang on a second, are you saying that "over here" wherever that is, it's legal to take sexual pictures of your under-18 wife, but not your under-18 self? How does that make any sense?

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  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @@Can't get my head round this. cntd...

    Presumably the piling on of redundant laws is to make the illegal "illegaler," to coin a phrase. Weird part is, as several have noted, the prosecutor has as much as confessed to a crime (or at least criminal tendencies) himself by simply claiming photos with bras were provocative. I noted this rather disturbing trend in other zealots. J Edgar Hoover is a good public example.

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    illegal to confiscate someone's personal media

    You have to understand the the laws regarding search and seizure are intended to regulate what the government and its agents are allowed to do. School teachers/administrators are not generally considered to be agents of the government. It IS highly questionable whether they have a right to invade someone's privacy by going through their cell phone contents...and i'm guessing NONE of the kids had a password on their phone which could have easily prevented most of this.

    The fact that the kids were ratted out to the idiot DA is a whole 'nuther problem; which as a parent I would have to address on a person to person basis. The DA is clearly out of line with the entire proceedings; as are all the others of a similar nature which have been reported here and elsewhere. There was nothing reported regarding the permissability of cells in, on, or around the school; so I can't comment on that. Snooping through them is a major problem, though and the courts have even gone so far as to make it permissible for the coppers to go through your cell if you are stopped for relatively innocuous purposes...kind of like the stretch the courts made for border patrol to go through your phone and PC while you are coming or going..... and that's flat wrong, too.

    It seems that this numpty DA has been in office the last 20 years or so...too long at the public trough and he thinks he's completely in charge and can do anything he wants...and is running for re-election - that tell you anything? The sad part is that, regardless of threats made, more parents didn't have the gumption to fight back. The judge was quite correct; but the idiot was on the news last night whinging that he may very well appeal to a higher court. One can only hope that a higher court smacks this down so hard his corpulence bounces for a week.

    re: child abuse....I seem to recall a lot of that from my youth...oh wait.....

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  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    As to bikini pictures

    I just realised, I think I do have a collection of underage bikini photos. It's in a high street shop catalogue which has a clothing section. I never looked to check.

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    My son died...

    ... from Cancer @ 18. I deleted ALL his photo's from his phone without inspecting them. I knew he was sexting, so what? Why do people need to look at other peoples choice of smut & porn?

    Mine's the one with an H & E in the pocket! (H & E is a naturist magazine for non-UK readers.)

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  8. Glenn Charles
    Paris Hilton

    hard prosecutor

    ...Sounds like he (the prosecutor) had a real hard-on for those girls.

    --Glenn

    8]

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  9. Andus McCoatover
    Thumb Down

    Saw ths numpty DA on tv (web-feed)

    Think it was "Good Morning America". He looked VERY uncomfortable, but like a true 'merkan, he hadn't the balls to back down and admit he might have overstretched.

    Lie and Deny. The new 'Merkan Way.

    Epic Fail!!! If this Numpty gets re-elected or prevails in this case, God help America.

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  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    How utterly insane....

    It's ONE thing to be preying upon others by force or vulnerability......

    It's another thing to be enjoying life and ones body and other people......

    The christian cult and it's shaming (morals) is disgusting anyway...

    This is just lunacy.

    Personally - the idea of CONFISCATING other peoples property - "The mobile phones" and then examining the contents of them....

    Personally I think that is a real violation - of self and self space; and the people who did that, then get all "OHhhhh it's a sin - it's pedophillia - it's child porn" and sanctimonious / legalistic about the whole damned thing....

    If there is ever a reason to go and break a few sticky noses - this is it.

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  11. Mark SPLINTER
    Stop

    searching for photos on kids' phones?

    so let me get this straight... someone at the school confiscated a bunch of phones and went through the photo galleries looking for pics of slumber parties?

    i think he (it was definitely a he) sounds like the pervert in this story.

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