Vermont Teen Sexting Case Results in Jail Time

An 18 year old in Vermont is being sentence to serve 90 days in jail for criminal charges related to “sexting”. He admitted to receiving sexually explicit pictures on his cell phone.

UPDATE: According to the Burlington Free Press, the incident was considerably more serious than reported in other news sources, and the sentence is primarily for assault. The defendant will also be added to the state sex offender registry when released.

The story appears to be a case of two teenage girls consensually sending the young man images or video of them performing sexual acts. If that is true, then most people would find a 3 month jail sentence to be quite harsh.

According to the AP Wire, The teen pleaded guilty to 2 counts of committing a prohibited act, and one count of lewd and lascivious conduct. Sexual assault charges were dropped in the plea agreement.

The sexting plea deal appears to be a direct result of Vermont recently decriminalizing most consensual sexting behavior. The law is to protect minors from being subject to potential sex offender status.

But in this case, where the defendant was of legal age, this sentence of jail time clearly sends a message that sexting and related indecent behavior is extremely serious under the law.

What is Sexting?

The word “Sexting” can mean a wide variety of different things, and the context matters significantly. Most people would agree that an adolescent boyfriend & girlfriend agreeing to exchange slightly naughty pictures of themselves is far different than a middle-aged man soliciting or harassing an underage girl with sexually explicit text messages or images.

The former should probably best be left out of the criminal justice system, while the latter is and should be a serious crime.

Via: Switched.

About David Matson