Judge bars prosecutor from charging teens for nude photos
A Pennsylvania prosecutor had threatened to file child porn charges against three teens featured in explicit photos. But U.S. District Judge James Munley decided to temporarily block the charges after a lawsuit was filed contending that the photos were not pornographic and the teens never consented to having their pictures distributed.
One photo is of a teen girl who has just gotten out of the shower and is topless. The other picture shows two girls in their bras. The images were widely distributed among students at Tunkhannock Area High School in northeastern Pennsylavnia in October, where boys were trading racy photos of teen girls. Sexting has become a phenomenon among teens, and many have been arrested on child porn charges and even jailed.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit saying charging the Pennsylvania teens was too heavy-handed. “This country needs to have a discussion about whether prosecuting minors as child pornographers for merely being impulsive and naive is the appropriate way to address the serious consequences” of sexting, Witold Walczack, the state ACLU legal director told the Associated Press.
County prosecutor George Skumanick Jr. said he may appeal the judge’s decision. Previously, he had offered to not file charges if the girls participated in an after-school program about sexual harassment, sexual violence and gender roles. Seventeen other students at the school have accepted a similar offer.
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