In Minnesota, there is a troubling case brought by Rice County Attorney John Fossum who has confirmed that he has charged a 14-year-old girl with felony child pornography for sending a fellow teen a selfie of herself. In such a twisted logic, the child is both the victim and the felon of child pornography.
The prosecution of the “Jane Doe” for her selfie highlights the rising concern over prosecutions for the widespread sharing of photos by teenagers. The ACLU has entered the case to support the girl.
The Minnesota law does not have an exception for teen to teen transmissions:
Subd. 3.Dissemination prohibited.
(a) A person who disseminates pornographic work to an adult or a minor, knowing or with reason to know its content and character, is guilty of a felony and may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than seven years and a fine of not more than $10,000 for a first offense and for not more than 15 years and a fine of not more than $20,000 for a second or subsequent offense.
(b) A person who violates paragraph (a) is guilty of a felony and may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than 15 years if the violation occurs when the person is a registered predatory offender under section 243.166.
What do you think?
189 Wash.2d 334 (2017)
Mr. Obama declared 14 year old girls were women in his announcement about the morning after pill. So maybe the part of her that is a women is abusing the part of her that is a little girl.
Government is a blunt stupid instrument that is particularly good for trashing the lives of teens. A pox on the Fossum’s office
Absurd. There are better pictures of naked women in the Louve. Going to bring charges against the curators?
Absurdities do exist and this “law” is one of them.
This is when law goes too far. Ridiculous, and all charges should be dropped immediately with an “I’m sorry I’m an A-hole letter.”
I wonder if Fossum is angling for a job on Muellar’s Team???
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
The parents are paying for the cell phone can they be charged also?
Like when the owner/Landlord rents out a property and the renters get busted for selling drugs, the landlord can be have His house consificated in some cases.
Donkey butts need to be posted on billboards in that county.
I heard this on MPR and the boy that received the photo passed it around to his friends at a Faribault school.
Punishment enough.
And by the way, Is the boy is trafficking child porn?
I think that’s punishment enough.
Many of these district attorney’s in this state are drunk with power. Everyone can see that they’re falling off the bar stool, except the drunk.
Technically, Rice County Attorney John Fossum may be right, but he also knows (I’m sure) that there are exceptions to the application of laws and this case would be such an example, particularly with respect to the 14 year old girl’s intent–which is key to interpretation of this law.
I believe that Fossum is just trying to make a name for himself and at some appropriate point, he will drop all charges. Fossum is really just making a political statement that he hope to use to his political advantage in the future, perhaps when he runs for higher office. By taking these actions, Fossum believes he’s basically communicating, “I’m a tough guy on crime and you can depend on me to go after people who do bad things,” but I’m also a fair guy, who shows mercy [after he’s let the 14 year old off the hook at a convenient time].”