March 26, 2009
Prosecutor sued over semi-nude teen photos case
The American Civil Liberties Union sued a Pennsylvania prosecutor on Wednesday over his threats to charge three teenage girls with child pornography for allowing themselves to be photographed partly clothed with cellphone cameras. Reuters reports.
The case involves the growing practice among teens of "sexting," a play on the term texting, in which nude or semi-nude photos are sent on cell phones or posted on the Internet.
Pictures showing two of the girls wearing white bras, and another standing topless with a towel wrapped around her waist were discovered by school officials in October 2008, the ACLU said. The pictures did not show any sexual activity.
... "Kids should be taught that sharing digitized images of themselves in embarrassing or compromised positions can have bad consequences, but prosecutors should not be using heavy artillery ...to teach them that lesson," said Witold Walczak, ACLU Pennsylvania legal director.
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