A teenage couple, in North Carolina face jail time for sending each other explicit photos during their relationship, reports Tech Dirt.
Cormega Copening and his girlfriend Brianna Denson, both 17, sent nude photos to each other while they were dating aged 16.
The dangers of sexting. Image Credit: Pro Juventute (Flickr)
The police came across the photos when they searched the boy’s phone for unrelated reasons. There is nothing to suggest the photos have been shared with anyone else.
Copening now faces a lifetime on the Sex Offender Registry and 10 years behind bars if convicted. He has been suspended from his high school football team while the investigations are carried out.
Denson pleaded guilty, and is currently serving a year’s probation.
Both face charges of second degree sexual exploitation of a minor (for sending the photos to each other) and charges of third degree sexual exploitation of a minor possessing the photos.
US immigration lawyers in Thailand Chaninat and Leeds have decades of experience successfully managing the US visa application process for Thai nationals.
Arguably the most bizarre part of this case – that by sharing photos of their own genitals, even though these were distributed no further, they have essentially become their own pornographers in the eyes of the law.
The law the couple are accused of violating is the exact same law that genuine child pornographers are charged with.
With the exception of New York, North Carolina is the only US state that allows minors to be charged as adults for certain offenses.
Reason.com comments:
“There’s one more disturbing angle to this story. If Copening is too young to send pictures of his own body, is he not also too young to be made a social pariah?”
Ricochet’s Tom Mayer, said:
“If Governor Pat McCrory and the North Carolina legislature want to protect minors from sexual exploitation, they could do worse than amending such dangerous and foolish laws.”
Read the full story here.
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Go here to learn about sex laws in Thailand.
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