What, exactly, is the law when minors sext nude pictures of themselves?
Generally speaking, laws against child porn deal with the content and probably have nothing to say at all about the age of the perps. Once the children are above the age for making decisions, they are assumed to have the mens rea to commit crimes.
f a 17-year old girl sexts her 18-year old boyfriend, has the boyfriend committed a crime? To avoid potential culpability, must be report the incident to the police?
No, the boyfriend has not committed a crime if he he simply receives unsolicited kid porn. I'd say the same for an adult that received the material without solicitation. Reporting the incident may help convince people that he did not solicit the material, but simply deleting any unsolicited material ought to avoid meeting the elements of a crime.
but I think in many cases the only thing preventing arrest of minors is the discretion of police, not a very comforting prospect.
As bad as an arrest might be, prosecution afterwards is even more scary. And it is not the police who decide such things.
In a recent NC case, two 16 year olds were charged for taking explicit photos. If instead they had been caught doing the actual deed, they would not have committed any offense at all.
2 North Carolina teens hit with child porn charges after consensual sexting | Ars Technica
Edited by NoNukes, : No reason given.
Edited by NoNukes, : No reason given.
Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in prison. Thoreau: Civil Disobedience (1846)
History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. Martin Luther King
If there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask? Do they get smart just in time to ask questions? Scott Adams