Comments on: Sex 2.0

By: Carlos Riquelme

Carlos Riquelme — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 02:52:25 +0000

The main problem is distribution. Teens are entitled to explore sexuality and technology in equal measures. It’s perfectly ok for them to create and share such content among the people they trust. Why? Because it’s inevitable. No law could ever stop teens and pre-teens to use the technology available to them. The problem arises when the content they create, pictures or videos, is illegaly distributed (example: the violation of the privacy of the user by extracting the content from the phone or camera without their consent) and treated, by the distributor, as child porn.

By: Darius

Darius — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:08:07 +0000

In the Canadian case of R v Sharpe [2001] 1 SCR 45 the Supreme Court held that Canada’s law on child pornography should be read as including an exception for any visual recording, created by or depicting the accused, provided it does not depict unlawful sexual activity and is held by the accused exclusively for private use.
http://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/2001/2001scc2/2001scc2.html

By: Andres

Andres — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 19:15:12 +0000

Thanks Scott, that’s a good point. I guess that it would really depend on the age of the parties involved, and the local age of consent, as well as the circumstances. If a teenager films a friend naked, or engaging is sexual acts, then a child porn argument would definitely be stronger. However, something prevalent in sexting is that the teenagers take the pictures themselves, and send them to friends. This is more difficult to police in my opinion.

By: Scott

Scott — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:20:59 +0000

Just to clarify my first comment, I am not saying I think it is fine for teens to be posting this content, but I do think managing how you would deal with the act of doing so under the law is a tricky one due to the fact that in the eyes of the law it would be a potential child porn offence, which is unlikely to have even crossed the average teens mind.

By: Scott

Scott — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:16:22 +0000

They would likely be done under child porn laws as the age of the person uploading and/or sharing/distributing is usually not qualified in most county’s laws. Whilst it would seem silly to prosecute a youngster for posting such content, the fact remains if an ‘adult’ then viewed it many would be baying for blood.