Issues@Hand

AFA initiatives, Christian activism, news briefs

April 2016 – Teen sexting has reached epidemic proportions in the U.S. says Donna Rice Hughes, president and CEO of Enough Is Enough, an Internet safety group.

Almost 30% of teens have sent naked photos of themselves via email or text according to a University of Texas study, which also reveals that 57% of teens say they have been asked to send one, and 31% admitted requesting nude photos from friends.

For example, two New York 14-year-olds face felony charges (from last fall) when one videoed the other having sex with his girlfriend and shared it on social media. Twenty other students were suspended from school for viewing, possessing, or sending the video.

Also in 2015, a North Carolina boyfriend and girlfriend (both 16) faced felony charges for exchanging nude selfies. After community outcry, a judge reduced the charges to misdemeanors.

And last November, more than 100 teens were implicated in a small high school in southern Colorado. Under state law, possession of an explicit photo of a minor is a felony, and a conviction may require registration as a sex offender.

Courts are stymied because in most states, violation of pornography laws are felonies. Do they now convict teens of a felony that may follow them for life, or do they gloss over the seriousness of the crime by calling it a misdemeanor?

“How do we treat the production and distribution of this kind of content among ‘consenting’ youth?” Rice asks. She said it’s a dialogue that begs the attention of all who have to deal with this cultural epidemic.

Church of God Evangel magazine, 2/16