Are Your Children Producing & Distributing Child Pornography?

If the statistics are true, they just might be.  We have always known that each generation takes the previaling technolgy and uses it in a new way.  This has always been the case and always will.  The computer our parents used was for work.  The computer our children use is for entertainment.

It is common practice for children to take provocitive images and post them to social networking sites.  However, the pictures that make it to the social networking sight are often just the tip of the iceberg.  Boys and girls alike receive peer pressure to snap a quick pic on their camera phone and "share" it.

What many people have failed to realize, is that this constitutes child pornography.  When an underage boy or girl takes a nude photo with their camera, they are legally being considered producers of child pornography.  The fact that they are a child doesn't necessarily count in that situation.

Sending that picture adds "distibution of child pornography" to the list of charges.  Again, it doesn't matter that the picture is of themself, was taken by themself, and was sent as a picture mail to somebody.

Now to the recipient.  By receiving this picture mail, they an now be charged with receiving child porn.  Should they forward it, add distribution.  Should they keep it, it's posession.

The laws were obviously written before child pornography was able to be produced and distributed by the victim of such pornography.  As such the laws will probably change in some way to accomodate those situations.  However, education would be a small start.  In cases where your child gets caught in any part of this circle, they may be deemed a sex offender.

Even if they are the star of the child pornography that they personally produced, they may have to register as a sex offender for the rest of their lives.  This is probably not the burden that you want for your young child.  Given that children have been playing "show me yours and i'll show you mine" for what could be the entire history of clothed humanity, the convenient and pseudo private nature of portable electronic devices (pda/digital camera/camera phone) creates a significant danger to your childs ability to live a normal adult life w/o being registered as a sex offender...