Sexting — it's no joke, it's a crime

"Adults risk embarrassment if their [seminude, cellphone-delivered] sext message is misdirected," Josh Herman writes in the April Illinois Bar Journal. "But when a teenager (meaning a minor between 13 and 17) creates, sends, or receives a sext message in Illinois, he or she may have committed the criminal offense of child pornography." So a 13-year-old girl who sends a naughty photo of herself to her boyfriend (with predictable passalong results) is a potential child pornographer? Not only are these ridiculously disproportionate consequences unfair to hormone addled teens, they complicate matters for parents, school personnel, and the lawyers who advise them. Josh describes the problem and proposes solutions in his informative, easy-to-read article.