Ethical and Legal Issues

Ah, “sexting” . . . the new frontier for hormonal teenagers with the need to be risky and who do not understand that privacy does not exist in your cell phone. I need to state for the record, that I think “kids nowadays” are nuts. Absolutely insane. This past August, I heard in the news that two cheerleaders from a high school near me, that I even took classes at, had been suspended from their squad due to the creepy actions of others. These girls, while not completely innocent, did not deserve the punishment they received.

Okay, so the story goes like this: two cheerleaders took naked photos of themselves on their cell phones and, without the girls’ consent, they accidentally made their way through the majority of the high school, via the hand-dandy feature of text forwarding.

According to an article;

“One of the photos was taken three years ago, according to court documents. Showing the girl topless, it was sent to her then-boyfriend's phone in the summer of 2005. Later that summer, the picture accidentally was distributed to other Bothell High students, according to her lawsuit.

The other teen's photo was taken in June, when she and a fellow cheerleader used their cell phones to each snap photos of themselves naked, according to her lawsuit. Those photos were later accidentally sent to other Bothell High students, though King said it was unclear how that happened.”
Somehow, administration is sent the pictures and the girls are suspended from the squad as a result. Students are told to delete the pictures if they receive them, yadda yadda yadda. Anyway, the student’s parents are outraged that their girls were punished and NO ONE ELSE WAS! The parents sued the school district for unnecessarily sharing the photos with other staff members and for a failure to properly report the material as child porn.

Let me repeat this for you, maybe you’ll be as annoyed as I am:

Two girls were suspended from their private photos being sent around the school, without their consent. Adults, teachers, professionals who knew the material to be wrong legally and morally, passed it on to other staff members!

That’s right boys and girls; the staff possessed and distributed child pornography.
Now, the question is, “how is this in any way, shape, or form, the girls’ faults?” I will agree that taking the photos in the first place was perhaps in bad taste, and totally stupid, but these are kids we’re talking about – they will be stupid sometimes. However, the action taken on part of the school district, via the school employees, was totally reprehensible and they should face child pornography charges. The crime of possession of child porn does not require intent – you are guilty if you possess it.

Although their butt’s being sued, the school district still claims it dealt with the matter correctly. They name the action as "a frivolous lawsuit over a matter which would have died down and disappeared."

Uh, sorry guys. Something like that will stick with a girl and cause her years of distrust in both men and authority, in general. This case is scheduled to be heard in U.S. District Court in March of 210, but the judge has ordered that the two sides try mediation as an alternative.

This brings up the whole notion that the presumption of privacy within technology is false hope. As these girls learned, you are kinda screwed if someone wants to distribute your private material on cell phones or whathaveyou. Maybe a better idea would be to just not take the nudie pictures on your cell.