Is The Punishment for High School Sexting Too Harsh?
Drawing the line between sex-terand sex offender.
As teens, the phrase “there are consequences for our actions” haunts our every decision. As teens we accept the fact that our actions may affect the way people look at us later in life. As teens, we are expected to be “adult” enough to handle licenses, jobs, and even colleges away from home, we should be accountable for our actions.
Teen sex-ting haunts the classrooms and hallways of almost every middle school and high school in the country. Some argue that it is “no big deal” because 1 in about every 5 teenagers does it. Teen sex-ting is a huge deal and in some cases can even result in serious charges of child pornography, requiring participants to register as a sex offender for the rest of their lives.
Some argue that this punishment is too harsh for teens who are “hormonal,” or do not know the ramifications of their actions. Yet we expect to be handed the keys to the car, and money to go to college away from home? Drunk driving can result in serious consequences such as jail time. Should we lessen the consequence just because lots of teens do it? Wouldn’t lessening the consequences condone the behavior?
Teen sex-ting should not be condoned. Not when girls like Jesse Logan, an Ohioan eighteen year old, are harassed into committing suicide after having nude pictures sent around her school. Not when a nineteen year old man from Florida might have to register as a sex offender for having a naked picture of his girlfriend.
Should all teens caught with revealing picture have to go to jail for the rest of their lives? Not necessarily, because sometimes there are extenuating circumstances. However, shouldn’t the punishment be as harsh as possible in order to deter kids from sending the pictures that are “no big deal”?
Teens may not understand exactly how serious sex-ting is but we can all understand exactly how serious registering for a pedophile is. Yet, for the time being this punishment seems somewhat justified. For if our society begins to lessen the consequences for sex-ting, we are essentially condoning their obscene behavior.
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Post CommentMichael
On January 31, 2011 at 7:07 pm
You appear to misunderstand some key principles of sentencing law and the juvenile justice system. Lessening the penalties does not indicate that lawmakers are condoning this behavior, it simply shows that they understand it to be a far less serious offense than sexual abuse. Your conclusion suggests that the government should knowingly impose identical penalties for a serious offense and an incomparably trivial one, and leaves it open to an 8th amendment challenge.
Sexting cannot be compared to DUI, because DUI places the lives of others at risk. Sexting only hurts the person taking the photograph, therefore cannot justify harsh penalties.