Local Porn Stars are Born?

Oh My.

Seems as two high school girls and one high school boy from an affluent area in my neck of the woods got their skivvies caught on cell phone footage. One took a picture of her own, um, stuff. No one knows who took the other pic, but it shows that she was with an unidentified boy.

YUCK.

Ok, so the school went bananas and sent a letter home (as per the PA law on child porn). The letter is actually pretty good, and definitely prevents litigation. They know they will never get EVERYONE to delete the pics (seeing as they made their way all the way over to Harvard AND Oregon).

What to do?

Well, here is the thing. In the case of the girl who took her own photo - um, grounding? Take away the cell phone? Convent? The girl has issues and needs some help. I hope her parents focus on THAT and not trying to blame the world.

The other couple should go meet with counselors (and if a sicko took the pic...that person should get in loads of trouble). It might be a case of cyber bullying. It might have been a propped up cell phone. Maybe the boy took it? Maybe the girl? Perhaps the cat?

The thing that strikes me about this situation is the impact it has had in this community. At dinner tonight, we had a lively discussion about it.

Certainly, the passing and receiving of porn violates PA child pornography laws. Certainly there is some law (maybe FCC?) about such things, as well. But, as my cousin argued, is this a case of pornography if THEY (the kids) took the pictures?

It isn't surprising that kids are taking pics of themselves in, um, demonstrations of poor judgment...hell, back in the 80s there were lots of pics circulated - but (back then) they were polaroids.

An elder exclaimed, "BAN THE CELL PHONES!"

Um...believe me...banning the cell phone isn't gonna stop teenagers from "doing the nasty in the woodshed."

Is the problem that they were DOING it or that they spread the pic around to the free world?

Certainly, the former has been a problem for a long, long, long, time. We haven't fixed the problem, and the problem only seems to get worse. It got worse a long time before cell phones were available.

So, the problem here is the cell phone...but could just as easily have been the internet. The picture spread like wildfire...the current shake up will cause it to spread more...

In the case of the girl taking her own pic, my oh my, she must be awfully proud of her attributes. Because, as far as I know (and, truly, I have no idea), there are lots of similar pics on the web. I suspect the same is the case for couple number two...that stuff can be found all over the web (and in both cases...involving consenting and paid adults).

So, the problem here isn't really the CELL PHONE...or the INTERNET...the problem is that it makes a very affluent area look bad because, OMG, their TEENAGERS exercised bad judgment by TAKING pictures of yucky stuff and then, OMG, PASSING it around to all of their friends (and prolly enemies, too).

This seems to be a problem of "This kinda thing doesn't happen in our town."

Um...our town now involves the world...soooooo......as I have said a million times before...

TEACH DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP!!!!!