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North Carolina Teen Prosecuted For Taking Naked Selfie

CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK
CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK

A 17-year-old in North Carolina struck a plea deal last week to avoid serving jail time on felony sex offender charges. His crime? Taking a nude photo of himself.

The photo in question was discovered when the teenager’s cell phone was searched during a wider investigation into allegations that sexually explicit photos were being passed around his high school without the subjects’ permission. He wasn’t involved in that case — but, during the search, authorities did find a naked photo that he took of himself when he was 16 years old.

In response, he was charged with several counts of sexual exploitation for taking and possessing sexually explicit photos of a minor. The “minor” here refers to himself; he was named both the victim and the perpetrator of the crime. (He was separately charged for also having a photo of his 16-year-old girlfriend on his cell phone.)

The case has several elements that have confounded outside observers. For one, the 17-year-old has been prosecuted as an adult, even though the sexual exploitation charges rest upon his classification as a minor. On top of that, if he had been caught naked with his girlfriend, instead of caught having a naked photo of her, there wouldn’t be any reason to press charges. Sexual intercourse between consenting 16-year-olds is legal in North Carolina.

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The teen reached a plea deal that will prevent him from going to prison or having to register as a sex offender. But he will be on probation for a year, during which he’ll be subject to warrantless searches.

Experts who study teen sexuality say that the case illustrates the ways that some states are going too far to crack down on “sexting,” the term given to the act of using a cell phone to share sexually explicit photos. Often with the intention of combating cyberbullying and child pornography, a growing number of states have recently passed laws to criminalize sexually explicit messages between teens. But authorities have struggled to figure out how exactly to approach sexting among teenagers when it’s consensual.

Dr. Jeff Temple, a psychologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch who has conducted research on teen sexting behavior, told the Fayetteville Observer that if every state went after nude photos in the way that North Carolina recently has, “you’re talking about millions of kids being charged with child pornography.”

Temple’s most recent study found that sexting is becoming a normalized aspect of teen sexuality — somewhat of a “stepping stone” to physical sexual activity, as he puts it. However, it’s not necessarily problematic in and of itself. According to Temple, sexting isn’t associated with other risky behaviors, like having multiple sexual partners or using drugs or alcohol before sex. Nonetheless, sexting is often characterized as a public health concern.

“There are about 10 or 12 mostly conservative states where they will prosecute kids for this, and it’s a kind of moral values thing — they are trying to make an example of them because it’s believed to be inappropriate behavior,” Fred Lane, an expert in computer security and privacy and the author of the book Cybertraps for Educators, told the Guardian in response to the news out of North Carolina. “There is a streak of moralizing that runs through this country that is disturbing sometimes.”

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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has been raising concerns about state-level sexting laws for several years, arguing that teens should not be arrested for sexting their boyfriends or girlfriends. The organization also notes that anti-sexting laws may disproportionately target girls, who are more likely to face consequences for the public display of their sexuality. In campaigns against sexting, the emphasis is often specifically placed on dissuading young women from taking sexy pictures of themselves, even though studies have found that young men are nearly twice as likely to forward along a sexually explicit photo beyond its intended audience.