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Is porn still porn or do smartphones make difference?
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Sexting is the new flirting.
That’s the assertion of Jeff Temple. He’s an associate professor and psychologist at the University of Texas.
Why this should concern parents is the simple facts teens do stupid things with smartphones.
Earlier this month dozens of students at a high school in Canon City in Colorado were suspended when they were caught on campus looking at hundreds of naked photos of themselves and classmates that they had hidden in a cellphone app.
Two weeks ago 16 Tennessee students were charged with exploitation of a minor after exchanging explicit photos on their cellphones.
Two 16-year-olds who were boyfriend-girlfriend exchanged nude selfies and were charged with felony exploitation of minors that ultimately were reduced to misdemeanors.
Then last week two 14-year-old boys were arrested on felony child porn charges after one allegedly filmed the other having sex with a girl. They then allegedly texted the video that others re-texted resulting in at least another 20 students being suspended after they were caught huddling around a smartphone at school viewing the sexual encounter.
Remember the good old days when young teens got suspended if they repeatedly held hands and showed other signs of personal affection at school?
It was back when the worst students brought to school that triggered the wrath of the school administration were contraband racy playing cards or a copy of Playboy smuggled onto campus. Not only is Playboy so old school but it won’t even have nude photos starting next year.
That’s how the Internet has changed things.
So what about sexting? We know its stupid use has cost a few number of adults — mostly politicians — their jobs when it was used to “flirt.”
Of course that begs the question about when did flirting with someone encompass full frontal exposure? Before the advent of flash drivers it was called that flashing. And if your idea of flirting is to act like someone working at the Mustang Ranch, then what you are doing has nothing to do with romance.
I digress. There are two issues with sexting — one that is fairly clear and another that is murky. First of all if an adult 18 years or older using sexting communicating with someone 17 and younger they are clearly crossing the line. The degree of that infraction gets sharper as you move across the spectrum from modern-day flashing to coercion and trying to set up sexual encounters. The only mitigating circumstances might be an 18-year-old sexting with a 17-year-old boyfriend or girlfriend but even so it is still a serious offense.
The other issue with sexting is minors. And while teens sexting with young children as defined by some states as under 13 should be treated by the law as an absolute taboo and dealt with appropriately, what about teens sexting each other?
First and foremost it is stupid. The children of the Internet should know by now that anything you post, text, or email can do long-term damage as its electronic footprint never goes away. It can comeback someday to haunt or embarrass you at the very least or cost you admission to college or a job.
Assuming teens understand this is just that — an assumption. One would think by now, for example, that teachers should know that having sex with a student can turn out very bad for them. But that’s an assumption given a week doesn’t go by that at least one teacher somewhere in this country is charged with the crime of sex with a minor who happens to be their student.
A lot of school administrators have been criticized for turning students into the authorities for sexting. Parents have essentially demanded that educators show common sense.
But school personnel have a legal obligation to follow the law regarding child welfare and abuse. If not, they can be prosecuted — and sued — for not doing so even if the laws being broken may not make sense to some in the smartphone age.
Pornography  — whether it consists of nude selfies or the recording of a sex act that the budding 14-year-pold porn producers in New York are accused of doing — has no place in school. And if it happens to be in a text or app students have absolutely no business viewing it at school.
A case can be made for changing the laws to perhaps reduce some of the teen-to-teen transmission of nude photos and porn from being felonies. But before you let them get just a slap on the wrist consider this: What would you do if a teen shot photos using old school technology and then showed them to their friends and at school? Smartphones are just a tool just like Polaroids or 8mm film.
Before we start saying it is unfair for kids to get tripped up by technology, there is a world of difference between circulating a Polaroid photo of a fellow student in the nude and posting a similar photo on social media.
The punishment should fight the crime.
The crime, in this case, isn’t using a smartphone. It is producing and distributing porn involving minors whether it is of a fellow minor or a minor taking a selfie.

This column is the opinion of executive editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Bulletin or Morris Newspaper Corp. of CA.  He can be contacted at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com or 209.249.3519.