Teen Girls Threatened with Child Pornography Charges Based on "Sexting" Images File Suit Against County Prosecutor

How Appealing notes that the Pennsylvania ACLU has filed suit challenging a county DA’s authority to threaten to file child pornography charges against three high school girls whose semi-nude photos have been circulated among their high school classmates via cellphone messages.  The DA contends that the girls can be considered accomplices in the production of child pornography because they allowed themselves to be photographed wearing only a bra in a photo including only the top portion of the girls’ bodies or with breasts uncovered but with a towel over the lower portion of a girl’s torso.  The ACLU news release explaining the basis for the complaint filed against the DA offers this summary of their allegations:

In February 2009, [DA] Skumanick sent a letter to the parents of approximately twenty Tunkhannock students, including the ACLU's clients, threatening the students with criminal felony charges if they did not agree to be placed on probation and participate in a counseling program he devised. A course outline indicates that the program will help the girls "[g]ain an understanding of how [their] actions were wrong," "gain an understanding of what it means to be a girl in today's society," and "[i]dentify non-traditional societal and job roles."

The letter apparently was sent only to those who were discovered with the photos on their cell phones and the girls shown in the photos - not the students responsible for distributing the photos. The district attorney told a group of parents and students in February that he has the authority to prosecute girls photographed in underwear, like the ACLU's clients, or even in a bikini on the beach, because the photos are "provocative."

The ACLU charges in its lawsuit that Skumanick is misusing his authority by threatening to bring baseless child-pornography charges in order to coerce parents into sending their children to the re-education program and putting them on probation. The lawsuit claims this is a form of unconstitutional retaliation against the parents and children who assert their right not to be bullied into participation. The ACLU is asking the federal court to issue an order prohibiting the district attorney from filing criminal charges against the girls.

JFB