Underage Sexting is Child Porn, Says Washington Supreme Court
On Thursday, the Washington Supreme Court has ruled that a 17-year-old boy's act of sending unsolicited and sexually explicit photos of himself to a female adult is criminal.
Majority of the justices emphasized that in the state of Washington, the child pornography law does not exclude minors who send photos of themselves to unwilling recipients. In a 6-3 ruling, the majority decided that producing as well as disseminating child pornography is illegal for any person.
"We understand the concern over teenagers being prosecuted for consensually sending sexually explicit pictures to each other," Justice Susan Owens wrote.
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Majority of the justices, however, did not decide if the ruling applies to minors sending sexually explicit photos to consenting minors.
She continued, "Because he was not a minor sending sexually explicit images to another consenting minor, we decline to analyze such a situation."
The minority argued that the law was made to protect minors and not prosecute them. Justice Sheryl Gordon McCloud emphasized that there has been a long-standing rule about legislatures that enact criminal laws. According to her, when the law is supposed to protect a specific class, it should not be interpreted in a way that would prosecute the members of the class for their exploitation. At least, not unless the legislature says so.
In this particular case, the legislature does not.
The ACLU of Washington, Columbia Legal Services, as well as the Juvenile Law Center also believes that the majority's decision to uphold the teen's conviction would jeopardize minors in the state, as such adolescent behavior has become increasingly normative.
The case dates back to 2013 where the 17-year-old boy kept harassing a 22-year-old woman with unsolicited photos of his genitalia. Apart from that, the teen kept sending her lewd text messages and he kept leaving her phone calls.
The woman eventually reported the harassment to Spokane County Sheriff's Office and when a deputy confronted the teen, he admitted to it.
