Congratulations, You’re a Pedophile!

I thought Justice was supposed to be blind, not retarded

I’ve written before about how we, as a society, lose our minds when it comes to protecting children from child pornography and how our desire to protect them in other ways can turn every person who’s ever used a computer into a criminal.

Well now it turns out we’re all child molesters. At least, that’s the way I read the implications of a case in Pennsylvania where six teenagers are facing child pornography charges for taking nude pictures of themselves with their cell phones and texting them to each other. More specifically, three female students aged 14-15 took the pictures of themselves and sent them to three male students aged 16-17. The three female students are facing charges of “manufacturing, disseminating or possessing child pornography”, while the male students are facing charges of possession of child pornography.

I’m trying to wrap my head around the concept that these children took advantage of themselves and failing quite miserably. I’m also having a hard time with the idea that a 16 or 17 year old boy wanting to see a 14 or 15 year old girl naked is some sort of criminally perverted scumbag that needs to be punished. These children could all legally have sex with each other, yet taking nude pictures of themselves and exchanging them should somehow be off limits? I mean, sure, it’s not a great idea, but lots of things are not great ideas without being illegal.

You might be wondering exactly why the hell these charges were filed in the first place, when it seems any thinking person should realize that doing so is ridiculous. Well let’s check in with local police captain George Saranko:

Saranko indicated that authorities decided to file the child pornography charges to send a strong message to other minors who might consider sending such photos to friends.

“It’s very dangerous,” he said. “Once it’s on a cell phone, that cell phone can be put on the Internet where everyone in the world can get access to that juvenile picture. You don’t realize what you are doing until it’s already done.”

Oh, well that’s reasonable. As usual, the internets are to blame. So sure, let’s send these kids to jail, and make them register as sex offenders. Let’s really ruin their lives. That does indeed send an excellent message, if the message one wants to send is that the local police force is captained by a jackass. Bravo, sir. Mission accomplished.

Now you’re probably wondering about the title of this post, as well as my assertion above that you and I are now child molesters. “Mr. Cow,” you’re saying, “I never took naked pictures of myself when I was underage!” Oh indeed, but I’ll bet you touched yourself where your bathing suit covers. I’ll bet you had yourself naked in the shower or bath countless times. Apparently anything that would be illegal for an adult to do to you is now illegal for you to do to yourself as well. Hopefully you’ve never admitted to masturbating as a teenager. If you have, then presumably you’ve sexually assualted a minor, and the cops will be at your door momentarily.