-
There's a long Pittsburgh tradition of providing a vast selection of homemade cookies at wedding receptions, baked by the families of the betrothed in the weeks and months beforehand. Italian wedding cookies, biscotti, pizzelles, lemon bars, and lady locks are all de rigueur.
-
The legislature isn't likely to make it illegal for minors to send nude photos of themselves. Right now, kids can be (and are being) prosecuted with manufacturing and distributing child pornography for sending a nude photo of themselves to a girlfriend or boyfriend. It's nuts. The legislature has wisely concluded that no new laws are necessary here, although it might be a good idea to have an exception in the law for kids who photograph themselves. I cannot imagine what purpose is served by sending them to jail.
Comments are closed.
You’d think prosecutorial discretion would be the necessary stop gap, wouldn’t you? Apparently some prosecutors feel the need to teach minors to stop exploiting, er, themselves.
The problem with prosecutorial discretion is that it’s left to the discretion of prosecutors, it creates uncertainty in the system, and there’s little room for review. So laws get applied unevenly by jurisdiction or by race or class or gender or age or history, and it gives police greater power by creating a whole class of technically criminal actions which can be used as leverage against otherwise law-abiding folks.
That’s not to say I disagree with the whole practice, but if a law isn’t being prosecuted, it’s a sign that the law likely needs revision. We separate prosecutors, judges, juries, and the legislature for good reasons.
Personally, I think kids sending lewd pictures and texts to one another is more a parenting problem than a criminal one.
The other problem is that prosecutorial discretion is a conflict of interest, since prosecutors are incentivized to “keep their scores up”.