Posts Tagged ‘ACLU’
Teen boobs, now protected by the First Amendment.
Not only is sexting an epidemic, according to several media sources, but it’s also constitutionally protected speech, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Wrong, media. There’s no epidemic. Statistics this low don’t lie. Wrong, ACLU. The Constitution doesn’t talk about freedom of anything but speech.
The ACLU sued to block a Pennsylvania district attorney from filing child pornography charges against three teens on the grounds the cell phone snapshots are protected by the First Amendment. Wyoming County District Attorney George Skumanick offered 17 other students a deal, allowing them to attend a 10-hour sexual violence and pornography class rather than facing prosecution.
The New York Times reported three female students weren’t interested in the deal, which is how the ACLU lawsuit comes into play. It alleges the students’ First and Fourth Amendment rights have been violated, the Fourth Amendment violations being from the school finding the photos after confiscating the students’ cell phones.
There’s a simple three-point solution to this problem: 1) prosecutors stop filing charges against stupid kids unless it’s actually child pornography, 2) the ACLU stops pretending stupid kids exposing themselves to each other through technology is free speech and 3) kids stop being stupid.
Unfortunately, this plan will probably never be realized. Reasonable people will recognize that, even if prosecutors stop being overzealous and the ACLU reigns in the litigation, teens will always be stupid.
Obviously the potential consequences of sending out racy pictures doesn’t sink in to every adolescent’s brain. Anybody with common sense knows cell phones can get lost or stolen, pictures can be forwarded, intercepted or posted online, and relationships can end badly in a second.
But it shouldn’t be law enforcement’s job to punish juvenile indiscretions of that nature, and the ACLU shouldn’t have to cry “free speech” for things that aren’t a constitutional issue.
One of these days, kids are just going to have to learn to keep it to themselves. Few people want to see you naked on the Internet, and you probably don’t want the ones who do to see that sort of thing.
