Teens, teachers, and parents have been thrown into turmoil in Lacey, Wash., over a sexting scandal that started when an eighth-grade girl texted a nude photo of herself to her boyfriend, according to The New York Times. They broke up, and he shared the image with another girl, who in turn distributed it widely with the text, "Ho alert!" Soon, thousands of middle schoolers had seen it. Police accused the former boyfriend and two girls of disseminating child pornography, although the charge was lessened to harassment in a plea deal. The case illustrates just how hard it is for school administrators, parents, and police to stop kids from trading sexually explicit photos of themselves in this digital age. Is harsh punishment the answer?
Yes, criminal charges could help: Charging these teens with a felony turned the case "into an opportunity to teach young people about the dangers of sexting," say the editors of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. But the 14-year-olds who were "burned by playing with fire" aren't the only ones who need a wake-up call. The "parents who were out of the loop" and failed to protect their children in the first place are culpable, too.
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