Moving to curb the growing scourge of "sexting" among teenagers - kids texting nude photos of themselves and others - two top state officials announced plans to change current state law to better address the tech phenomenon.

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[So, how do you define this new crime so that it doesn't create a big fat loophole for sexual predators to seek reductions in their cases? I guarantee, defense attorneys will be flooding in with offers from their clients to plead to this misdemeanor.]

[This message was edited by JB on 11-08-10 at .]

[This message was edited by JB on 11-08-10 at .]

You sure that's the right link?

Corrected.

quote:

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Originally posted by JB:
So, how do you define this new crime so that it doesn't create a big fat loophole for sexual predators to seek reductions in their cases?

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You won't find any answers to that from the press conference. I watched it, and all I could wonder is why they were having a presser for a bill that was NOT being filed that day, the first day of bill filing.

I don't doubt either officeholder's sincerity, but their staffs did them no favors by setting this up prematurely. It made their bosses look bad.

I know that the two offices have met on the topic and that at least one real prosecutor was in attendance, but when it was suggested by that prosecutor that TDCAA staff be brought in for technical assistance in drafting the bill, that suggestion was rejected. So I guess we'll just get to find out the details when it gets filed, like everyone else.

I can only pray that the phenomenon of sexting will be long gone by the time my daughters enter middle school.

But the solutions proposed so far fill me as a parent with fear. My colleague Mike Ward is reporting that Attorney General Greg Abbott and state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, are working together to allow minors to be prosecuted for a misdemeanor crime instead of facing third-degree felony charges as they do now.

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[As the above editorial suggests, simply moving the crime to a misdemeanor isn't necessarily a solution. The press conference also implied that there would be a mandatory probation, rather than jail time, messing even more with the discretion normally present in the Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure structure. Well-meaning people have frequently made things a mess....]

Associated Press
LINDSEY TANNER
Published: Yesterday

CHICAGO (AP) - Teen sexting of nude photos online or via cellphone may be far less common than people think, new research suggests.

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And note:

The researchers did a separate study on how police deal with teen sexting of photos. Contrary to some reports, that research suggests few kids are being prosecuted or forced to register as sex offenders for sexting. It estimates that nearly 4,000 teen sexting cases were reported to police nationwide in 2008 and 2009.

A study published in the journal Pediatrics revealed that only one in 100 teens had sent nude or sexually explicit images via phone, as opposed to the previous estimate of one in five.

And here are some comments from the common folk:

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