Is that child REALLY a sex offender?

Do you know what sexting is?

According to Wikipedia, sexting is the act of sending sexually explicit messages or photographs, primarily between mobile phone.

Smart phones easily take and send photos.

In my school district, I seem to hear of at least one or two instances every year. A couple of times I have known the students, and I would describe them as smart, nice, and well raised young men and young women. My point is, anyone's child might stumble into this pitfall.

Did you know...The State of North Carolina does not have any specific laws addressing sexting? In fact, few if any states do.

In NC, the laws that come into play in a sexting incident are the state's Child Pornography Laws. As a result, any individual, even a minor, who is convicted of sending, or receiving a sexually explicit image (even of themselves) could be sentenced to jail time, and required to register as a sex offender. Even if a minor is sending pics of themself to another minor, the actions of both sender and receiver could constitute a felony under the North Carolina child pornography statute.

I am confident, those young people engaged in this innapropriate behavior had no idea of the potential ramifications, and they are not what most of us think of when we think of a sex offender. It seems to me, the laws were made to protect young people in a time when smart phones and texting technologies were not available. The laws have not changed to keep up with technology.

None of us want our kids sexting, but likely, we don't see kids who sext as sex predators... I think the laws will eventually become more sophisticated and nuanced to deal with texting teens, but until then, educate your youngsters, even if you think "they would never", because, they just might.

One more argument to keep tabs on your child's social media activities. If you don't live in NC you may want to look into how your state deals with such issues. My guess is that it won't be too different.

Happy parenting.