A judge in Colorado ruled that investigating a sexting incident is not the same as possession of child porn. This is something that every parent and administrator has to worry about in today’s world.
Bradley Bass, a school administrator, was investigating a tip that male students were sharing explicit images of a female student. He found the images and uploaded them to the school server with his work-issued phone. He was later arrested and charged with four counts of sexual exploitation of a child.
The judge ruled that this is not sexual exploitation. This was an appropriate investigation that required the photos to be accessed by an adult.
We often warn our children that they cannot touch explicit photos of their peers if someone shares them and that if they are unwilling recipients of such things, they cannot share them with us or anyone else because that would constitute distribution. It is such a scary world to think that you could unwittingly touch anything that could ruin your life in this way. This case brings up important discussions of overcriminalization and accountability.
