March 31st, 2004 -- by Bacchus
15 Year Old Girl Criminally Charged For Self Abuse
I couldn’t make that up. The news story:
Monday, March 29, 2004
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
State police have charged a 15-year-old Latrobe girl with child pornography for taking photos of herself and posting them on the Internet.
Police said the girl, whose identity they withheld, photographed herself in various states of undress and performing a variety of sexual acts. She then sent the photos to people she met in chat rooms.
A police report did not say how police learned about the girl. They found dozens of pictures of her on her computer.
She has been charged with sexual abuse of children, possession of child pornography and dissemination of child pornography.
Yup, she was charged with abusing herself by taking self-portraits.
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The mind boggles. Sheesh.
But was she photographed in the act of — err — self-abuse while she was abusing herself?
So…when a minor masturbates, it is now a felony. Will said minor be tried as an adult?
If that “sexual abuse” charge isn’t laughed out of court within five minutes, then something is truly wrong with our legal system.
She should be charged. Read it carefully Raging Bee. She is underage, she posted pictures of herself in not so nice poses, thus she is a child pornographer. Now think about this…she posts her pictures, someone then takes those pictures and posts them somewhere else. Then here comes mr (or mrs) web surfer and sees the pics, not knowing it is of an underage girl, and saves the pictures. POOF! That poor mr is now liable to be charged as a child pornographer if he is found with that picture on his hard drive!
I think Joe has it right.
However, what she needs is a bit of counselling and that’s about it.
Like Bacchus said couple of days ago, 18 is now 13.
What really needs to change is the attitude of our society towards the needs of young.
Morality issues aside, humans are animals too and need to fuck.
Cheers!
Joe, you are missing the point. She wasn’t charged based on any harm she caused others. She was charged with abusing herself by taking pictures of herself, which is patently ridiculous.
Maybe we should have some kind of distinction between 18 and 13; I was 14 when I lost my virginity and that was waaaay too long ago.
So it’s not just recently that sexual precocity exists.
Juliet was 13, for a famous and fairly esteemed example.
Forgive my ignorance, but isn’t there some kind of ceremony about “coming of age” at 13 in the Jewish faith? You’re not an adult yet, but you ARE responsible for yourself and your actions after that?
Maybe we should look into some kind of third level of maturity *legally* speaking; not child and not adult either. A “tweener”. ???
If the scenario Joe describes happened, it wouldn’t be the girl doing harm to others, it would be the crazy legal system, which has forgoten all it ever knew about the concept of innocent ignorance.
Three different debates, surely?
(1) Was what she did right/sensible?
(2) Was what she did deserving of prosecution?
(3) Is ‘sexual abuse of children’ an appropriate charge here?
For me, the answers are not really, no and bwhahahaha.
[Objectionable comment deleted. Calling another commenter a moron is definately “being a dick” and against the rules around here. The gratuitous flaming of a major group of religionists was just icing on the cake.
— Bacchus]
Joe: your argument lacks coherence. If an adult saves her naughty pictures, that’s his/her decision and his/her responsibility. The worst thing the girl may have done was posting information about herself that would allow an unscrupulous adult to take advantage of her; and this, obviously, must be stopped. But to charge her with “sexual abuse of a minor” for sexual things she did to HERSELF, without coercion, is beyond ridiculous – it is a bald-faced attempt to criminalize and stigmatize harmless masturbation. When the charge of “sexual abuse” is abused in this fashion, it is devalued, and the whole debate on the matter is cheapened. Anyone who can’t see this obvious point, needs more professional help than the girl in question here.
She should not be charged with the abuse, that is plainly nuts. Where she is liable is distributing those pictures to others.
I just want to know – if she does herself with a dildo, would that put her up on statutory rape charges, as well?
Gosh, I’m glad I live in Canada.
Chances are IF someone saved her (the 15 yr old) pics on their hard drive and IF they got caught, they would have other pictures there as well, not just hers however, If anyone recalls seeing Brooke Shields in “Pretty Baby” or has viewed any one of a number of models these days that are below 18, it’s very hard to tell, who is of age and who isn’t.
The police dept, in my opinion, should have used better judgement. Arresting her, charging her with Child porn etc., isn’t going to ‘cure’ what is right or wrong in this picture.
Where were her parents and why didn’t they KNOW what their daughter was doing?? Why haven’t they had a dialogue with her regarding the dangers of the internet??
The police, in my opinion, should have arrested the parents if anyone, for not paying attention to their daughter. Until she’s 18, they are responsible.
I’m a pornographer, but i know where my child surfs, i know what chat rooms he frequents, I know who he talks to, because WE talk about it.
This is 2004, not 1904, and with all the media access we have today, there is not reason NOT to have frank and open discussions with children about being body positive, STD, sex, etc.
I can’t agree with distorting the law because the current statutes seem inadequate.
What’s wrong with the dissemination charge?
I would LOVE to know the current disposition of this case. Bacchus is right in comment #6. Ostensibly, the girl can’t be used in porn because she’s supposedly below the age of consent (18 in California, 14 in Hawaii, 16 in Connecticut…), or age at which she is competent to make decisions regarding her body. This generally refers to sexual acts with others, And the above posting mentions no partners. In many states, only male on female intercourse is forbidden. If the act cannot result in sexual reproduction, then the action isn’t forbidden. The general rule of thumb regarding photography is that if it isn’t illegal to DO it, it’s not illegal to photograph it. Hence, if 12-year-old Brooke Shields can be naked in front of her doctor, the she should be able to be naked in front of the director of “Pretty Baby”, and twelve-year-olds should be able to pose for Sally Mann’s photographs. If she’s too young to competently give consent, then she’s too young to be competently responsible as well, therefore if she’s old enough to be competently responsible for what she did, then she’s old enough to consent to it. Besides, maybe she showed herself a false I.D…
Did this girl charge money to see her pictures? that is the only reason I can see to charge her with anything. I hope these cops know that they have ruined this girl’s life. She is now marked as a child molester, and not many people take into consideration the facts of the charge against her they just see a baby raper LOL. I feel that the legal system has caused her more damage that she could ever cause!
God help America with our legal system and god-or-should-i-say-religion-sponsored human stupidity. God help our world, if we cannot see beyond our noses.
Why not sentence to death every suicide-attempter that did not succeed in killing him/herself then.
Come on folks, wtf is going on with us, people!?!
[…] Remember that innocent age when it was actually news that the laws designed to protect children were being used to punish and stigmatize them, instead? Sadly, these days this is just routine, it doesn’t even make headlines: 15 Year Old Girl Criminally Charged For Self Abuse […]