Template:Reform Sex Offender Laws News/Criminalization of youth

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Criminalization of youth

• Teen Sexting Prompts Efforts To Update Child-Porn Laws

Rampant teen sexting has left politicians and law enforcement authorities around the country struggling to find some kind of legal middle ground between prosecuting students for child porn and letting them off the hook.
( Kristen Wyatt - The Associated Press, US, March 17, 2016)

• New Mexico Attorney General Would Rather See Sexting Teens Treated As Sex Offenders Than See His Funding 'Jeopardized'

Teens sexting can't be addressed by existing laws. Law enforcement -- which far too often chooses to involve itself in matters best left to parents -- bends child pornography laws to "fit" the crime. They often state they're only doing this to save kids from the harm that might result by further distribution of explicit photos. How exactly turning a teen into a child pornographer who must add his or herself to the sex offender registries is less harmful than the imagined outcomes cited by law enforcement is never explained. ( Tim Cushing - Techdirt, US, March 9, 2016)

• Newtown High students charged with selling sexted photos, videos

Three Newtown High School students have been charged with selling sexually explicit pictures and videos of their classmates. Twenty other students were referred to a juvenile review board for reportedly sharing those images with friends. (Nelson Oliveira - The News Times, US, January 28, 2016)

• Laws treat children as monsters for minor sex crimes | Punishments severe

Imagine a 9-year-old branded a sex offender for life. Oh wait. In America, in 2016, you don’t have to imagine.( Lenore Skenazy - RSOL, US, January 18, 2016)

• Throwaway Children

Attorney Catherine Carpenter serves on the board of CA RSOL. She spoke at RSOL's 2013 conference. Catherine has published a new paper dealing with the practice of putting our children on the sex offender registry. She states, “It is about the deeply flawed and inherently unjust practice of making children as young as ten register as sex offenders for life. It is a subject that fills me with anguish and anger.” (January 18, 2016 - RSOL, US, January 3, 2016) Source: Throwaway Children: The Tragic Consequences of a False Narrative (Catherine L. Carpenter, Southwestern Law School, December 29, 2015)