sexting laws. why?

Questions and discussion about sex and sexuality in political or community beliefs, principles, actions, policies, experiences, messages and media.
bikinksterboy
not a newbie
Posts: 282
Joined: Thu Aug 25, 2016 6:32 pm
Age: 22
Awesomeness Quotient: my willingness to try essentially anything
Primary language: English
Pronouns: he/him
Sexual identity: bisexual
Location: New York, New York

sexting laws. why?

Unread post by bikinksterboy »

why are the laws surrounding sexual intimacy over the phone in the united states so draconian and so bent on indiscriminately punishing both those who sext with no harmful intentions and those whose images are leaked to the world without their permission?
Sam W
scarleteen staff/volunteer
Posts: 9784
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2014 9:06 am
Age: 32
Awesomeness Quotient: I raise carnivorous plants
Primary language: english
Pronouns: she/her
Sexual identity: queer
Location: Desert

Re: sexting laws. why?

Unread post by Sam W »

I can't speak for everyone who put those laws in place, but a big part of it is preventing people from producing and circulating child pornography (at least as far as sexting laws focusing on young people). That's a good thing to prevent, but those laws do pose the risk of catching young people trying to flirt or be intimate with no malice to it.

As for the images being leaked and how we respond to the victims of that, I think it's tied to a lot of cultural beliefs about sexuality and how it's something to be ashamed of. And, since many victims of leaked photos are women, it tends to be compounded by the extra amount of shame we attach to women being sexual.
KittyPink
not a newbie
Posts: 378
Joined: Thu Nov 17, 2016 2:11 pm
Age: 23
Awesomeness Quotient: I do art.
Primary language: English
Pronouns: Xe/Xir or She/her
Sexual identity: Lesbian, switch, polyam, rope addict.
Location: Parma,Ohio

Re: sexting laws. why?

Unread post by KittyPink »

Sam W wrote:I can't speak for everyone who put those laws in place, but a big part of it is preventing people from producing and circulating child pornography (at least as far as sexting laws focusing on young people). That's a good thing to prevent, but those laws do pose the risk of catching young people trying to flirt or be intimate with no malice to it.

As for the images being leaked and how we respond to the victims of that, I think it's tied to a lot of cultural beliefs about sexuality and how it's something to be ashamed of. And, since many victims of leaked photos are women, it tends to be compounded by the extra amount of shame we attach to women being sexual.
I just wish they wouldn't penalize the kids, at least as bad as they do. I mean, some of them just too naïve to really think about it, they see no harm in it. And with the whole shaming thing, I really wish we could just stop shaming people for something completely natural.
"You are a dreamcatcher, you are beautiful to look at and you take the bad away and only give people the good." - Andrea Blankenship

***Transfeminine***

LIVE AND LEARN
Post Reply Previous topicNext topic