Home      Login

Abstract: 

Advances in technology and evolving social norms among young adults have outpaced the law. While many states have supplemented criminal frameworks to include limited criminal sanctions for posting a nude photo of someone without his or her consent, these laws apply to adult actors. When the victim is a minor, some state legal frameworks allow law enforcement to investigate the minor for criminal charges for having shared the intimate photos in the first place. Typically, these charges would be brought under state child pornography laws. This article examines the question, how did state law lose its relevance such that it treats a young victim as an offender in a case that involves a consensual “criminal act” and a victimless harm?

Keywords: Revenge Porn as Criminal Violation; Consent to Disseminate; Differentiating Sexting From Child Pornography; State Interest in Protecting and Prosecuting; Romeo and Juliet Exemptions; statutory rape

Affiliations:  1: Day One; 2: Day One.