14 Year Old Girl Arrested for Posting Nude Pictures on MySpace

According to Sky News, a 14-year-old girl was arrested in New Jersey for posting nearly thirty nude pictures of herself on her MySpace account for her boyfriend to view. If convicted for possession and distribution of child pornography, according to Megan's Law, she will have to register as a sex offender, and could face up to seventeen years in jail.

What this girl did was wrong, but why should she have to register as a sex offender? Who did she offend, herself? This makes no sense. Also, would a young and obviously impressionable girl really be better off in juvenile hall for this mistake? If she was sent off to juvenile hall, she will be imprisoned with other bad seeds that might make her worse off in the end.

While I agree with the child pornography charge to some extent, the way the courts are handling this little girl's fate is ludicrous. She should be at home, with her mom and dad. Her parents need to ground her for the next year or four, throw her computer in the garbage, get rid of her phone, and cut her ties with her boyfriend. A good old-fashioned spanking wouldn't hurt either.

Parents are more lax than they were decades ago, and the consequences are harming our children. Today's teens are sending nude pictures through mobile phones and E-mails, and even though teens are the ones sending these photos out, prosecutors still consider these acts child pornography, and they are being tried as if they were 40-year-old men taking pictures of naked kids and plastering them across the internet. The laws need to change.

So how can you keep your kids safe? First off, don't let your children have computers in their bedrooms. Even if parental controls are set, there still plenty of ways around them. E-mails aren't affected by most programs. If they need to do homework on a computer, set up a community workspace in an open area, or better yet, keep the computer on a desk in the master bedroom.

Next, and this might come as a shocker, teens do not need regular cell phones. Cell phones are nothing but status symbols, and they rack up money when kids sign up for ringtone subscriptions, and send thousands of text messages. Worst of all, most cell phones today have full Internet and E-mail access.

There are several phones on the market that are child friendly, such as the LG Migo for Kids by Verizon. It allows the child to call up to 4 phone numbers, as well as 911, options like SMS have been omitted. If your teen just has to have a grown-up-looking phone, you can buy a teen-friendly phone such as the SCP-2400 phone by Sanyo, which comes with a parental control accessory bundle to keep your children safe.

Source:http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/MySpace-Child-Porn-Arrest-New-Jersey-Teenager-Charged-Over-Nude-Pictures-On-Website/Article/200903415250203?lpos=World_News_Carousel_Region_3&lid=ARTICLE_15250203_MySpace_Child_Porn_Arrest%3A_New_Jersey_Teenager_Charged_Over_Nude_Pictures_On_Website