New York State Putting Forth An Educational Teen Sexting Law

“Sexting” allegedly is what’s keeping today’s parents up at night. While you are safely sleeping, your teen could be downstairs sending pictures of themselves to hopeful boyfriends or girlfriends and that gives Mommy more gray hair than she needs. Lawmakers in New York state are putting forth a bill to establish “educational reform” for kids convicted of sending out elicit pictures of themselves called the “Cyber Crime Youth Rescue Act.” The proposal covers text messages, emails, social networking sites as well as those who assist in circulating images of other students. The aim of the bill is to give kids an alternative to charging them with child pornography should they get dragged before a judge.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

The program would teach children the potential legal consequences for sharing sexually suggestive or explicit images. And it would lay out the impact that such graphic materials could have on their relationships and career. And it would also stress to them “the nearly unlimited ability of an infinite audience to utilize the Internet search for and replicate materials.”

Given the many pitfalls that await texting, tweeting, Facebooking kids, this effort to educate them on the dangers is probably more effective then hauling them off to jail. Considering that so many of these kids are coming up in an age when even fetuses have a Facebook page and politicians tweet scandalous photos, it goes without saying that many of them might be unaware of what not to send out to the world.