In a society that glorifies and worships sex as if it were some ancient omnipotent deity, it’s sort of hard to avoid stumbling upon sex-related topics. For example, it’s so ridiculously easy to send a picture message to any number of people in the contacts list of your cell phone, only to have racy photos spread all over the Internet in just one day.

What the hell was picture messaging invented for anyway? It’s technology like picture messaging that makes it so easy to violate people’s lives and privacy.

“Sexting” is a popularized term that refers to the act of sending sexually explicit messages or images through electronic devices like cell phones. Over the recent years, sexting has become common practice, and in doing so, it has evolved into a very serious issue.

I recently learned that those people below age 18 who participate in “sexting” can be prosecuted under the Felony Child Pornography laws>. Because they are underage, young people who “sext” can be labeled as “sex offenders” and be prosecuted for up to 20 years.

This news blew my mind. This law is a very tricky issue and it’s taken me a while to really figure out how I felt about this.
I do agree that if you’re under 18 and your caught sexting the law should punish you. Sometimes, sexting is uncalled for. In certain cases, it could be a couple sending pictures back and forth to each other. Other times, it could be some creepy guy who thinks it’s okay to send pictures of his dick. The problem, especially, is a lot of times when people sext and send racy pictures, the receipt often sends the picture to someone else, and that third party might post the picture on the Internet. Then the picture attacks attention of HNG’s (horny net geeks).

I’m still unsure if I think young people should be charged with a felony for sexting. Doing so places sexting next to murder, rape, assault and battery and some of the other absolute worst charges in law. I’m not saying that sexting is harmless, but I don’t think that it should rank up there with the heavy hitters (even on the grounds of child pornography) and thereby land you a one way ticket to San Quentin (or wherever else).

Like I said earlier, sexting is a tricky issue, especially because it deals with minors. Its hard to know where to draw the line on topics like this, and there will never truly be an absolute solution to this problem.
—Torriano Melancon