Sexting

[Barry]

Currently in America, a sixteen year-old girl who takes a picture of her boobs with her cell phone and sends that picture to her sixteen year-old boyfriend with that same cell phone can be prosecuted under laws designed to counter pedophiles, i/e “kiddie porn.”

Some years ago here in Oregon a federal sting operation was done to catch and break up a ring of “kiddie porn” producers, only to find that the people producing and distributing through the Internet this “kiddie porn” were the high-school-aged children who in fact “starred” in these productions themselves. It’s my understanding that they were prosecuted.

Police are able to cast a dragnet through the Internet by posing as underage girls seeking to have sex with adult men, which would seem to imply that there is in fact some quantity of underage girls actually seeking to have sex with adult men.

Clearly, some rethinking of the matter of adolescent sexuality in our society is called for.

Should children “sexting” pictures of themselves to each other be prosecuted under “kiddie porn” laws?

What about the children in Cannon Beach, Oregon? Was prosecution for production of “kiddie porn” the best way to handle their case?

What about all the underage girls seeking to “hook up” with adult men through Internet chat rooms? Are “To Catch a Predator”-style efforts doing anything for those girls? Are the police putting psychological professionals in the chat rooms to try and talk those girls out of what they’re doing?

Bearing in mind that the adult men seeking to “hook up” with underage girls in Internet chat rooms, as well as the consumers of the “kiddie porn” produced by the children in Cannon Beach, Oregon some years back are depraved individuals who rightfully should face harsh sanction by society at large, what about the children included in the equation? It seems to me they are overlooked.

The idea appears to be to catch all the predators, thus protecting the children. And to envision the children as non-sexual beings and encourage them to be so. Both of these chains of reasoning and logic are imprudently fallacious. Children think about sex. Some of them have it. They are indeed sexual beings. Our wishing them not to be so will never make them not so. It’s a form of burying one’s head in the sand. It flies in the face of reality.

With the Internet, and cell phones equipped with digital cameras able to access the Internet, the stage is entirely reset. A radically new approach to adolescent sexuality is called for. If a radical new approach is not arrived at by adult society at large, the children themselves will arrive at one on their own. They are doing so now. And I don’t think prosecuting them under laws designed to impose harsh sanction on depraved pedophilic adults is a proper or effective approach in the long term.

Children in the years just preceding their introduction into adult society think about and have sex. This is as has always been. It is as will always be. We will never stop them. Maybe we should consider some means of guiding them instead.

Peace,
Barry

[stilltrucking]

If a radical new approach is not arrived at by adult society at large, the children themselves will arrive at one on their own.

Maybe we should consider some means of guiding them instead.

It hurts my head to think about it. Such an Orwellian world of double think we live in. The same media that stokes the fear among adults also hyper-sexualizes kids.

What world.

[mtmynd]

It's been said sexual perversions arise out of sexual repressions... the deeper the repression the more perverse the behavior.

But yet we discourage anything sexual amongst those whose youthful, biological clocks are loudly ringing with curiosity which oftentimes become stunted by our preferred social norms, i.e. "wait until you're of legal age...", an artificial limit set most often by those that have certain fears of sex themselves. Then we ask ourselves 'why are there so many young girls pregnant out of wedlock...? Don't these kids know better?'

[jimboloco]

i got stopped at a little store in eureka california
walking to the hospital with my bandaged guatemalen fellow traveller
to the hospital up on the hill
we wanted sodas
so this young lady in jeans and dar=k glasses, well kept, asked me to buy her some beer
i said "no" mercifully

when i came back out of the store with the sodas
i saw this young lady standing with two young men in slacks and dress shirts and dark glasses
standing there smiling

me the guatemalen and my dog walked away to the hospital

a set up is a set up
bad karma

[Barry]

I think it's very illustrative that when we're talking about them having sex we want to treat them as children, and when we talk about them killing we want to treat them as adults.
If they can be prosecuted as adults when they commit crimes, why can't we they be considered adults when they have sex? You understand we're talking about people beyond a certain age here, say, 14, 15 or so. Though I've heard of even 12 year olds being tried as adults.

Orwellian double think is exactly the phrase, stilltrucking

I'm reminded of Margaret Meads work in the South Pacific. Those "primitives" had a much better handle on apporopriate handling of adolescent sexuality than we "moderns" do, mtmynd

Yeah, jimbo, a setup is a setup. Still, the implication is there are a lot of underage girls in chat rooms wanting to hook up with adult men. Other than catching the occasional predator, it doesn't seem that anyone's doing anything to help those girls.

Peace,
Barry

[Arcadia]

With the Internet, and cell phones equipped with digital cameras able to access the Internet, the stage is entirely reset. A radically new approach to adolescent sexuality is called for. If a radical new approach is not arrived at by adult society at large, the children themselves will arrive at one on their own. They are doing so now. And I don’t think prosecuting them under laws designed to impose harsh sanction on depraved pedophilic adults is a proper or effective approach in the long term.

something like inadecuacy of precedent laws? yeah, it wouldn´t have to be an obstacle, as far as I know, laws aren´t inamobibles. Though, the remote idea of police doing psicological counseling would sound a little morbid, at least in my country. Two weeks ago one of my students (10 or 11 years old) told me very proud that when he chat he says he´s a forty years old lawyer... first reaction it made me laugh... then I ask him if people believe him... (yes!) then if in his home they knew about it.... (no answer) then I felt somehow stupid saying him to be careful, to talk about it with his parents, and not to enter in adults chat-rooms... (all that while serving breakfast)...yeah, new creative and not only alarming dialogue spaces are needed...

and hey!, by the way... nice photo!: are you already sixteen in it, Barry ? (I´m joking, of course...!)

[Barry]

That photo was taken last Nov. 1, at Tolum in Mexico, where there was a man who wanted only five dollars to let us pose with his boa constrictor. We called it a bargain.

Peace,
Barry

[jimboloco]

a cat can be constricting also
but mine is also liberating
the liberation of place
and growth tripping
at home

still have those on the road dreams

hiked the oregon beach in 1979, october sunny
after a rainy overnight bivouack in some coastal town when i got there

my my almost 30 years ago

interesting yes how the medium is the message becomes a gateway for new growth and new danger

i was propositioned by a beautiful young girl in nighttime detroit
i picked her up in my taxi at a house on a snowy street

she said she would do "anything" for me if i would take her home

i took her to the bus stop at 6 mile and woodward
and gave her bus fare

2 am

thought about taking her to my home and having my way with her
yes i did, but
love is a beautiful thing
keeping guardianship is building trust
not just in one person, but building the idea of trust as a worthwhile concept to be valued

trust is the first task in life
and needs repairing throughout

i trust arcadia too
but not the argentine air!

[mtmynd]

... but not the argentine air!

i heard the air is filled with the music of the tango
and the memorable fragrances of wine and flower
(could this be only my imagination at play...?)

digame, jimbo... what tales have you heard of this air?

[Arcadia]

mmm...

cecil: as a resident, I can tell you that sometimes it is as you described, and (of course!) sometimes not..!

jimbo: are you meaning that you believe me and that you don´t believe in my danish-notcontrolled-aedesaegypti-glifosato country´s airs? (you have the right to be cryptic, though
)

[stilltrucking]

Cecil wrote:

It's been said sexual perversions arise out of sexual repressions... the deeper the repression the more perverse the behavior.

I don't know about that compadre.

Sounds like that Freudian shit.

Just curious as why I have been such a failure as a pervert.
I should be the poster boy for it. If that statement is true.

Freud is so Jewish.

[mtmynd]

Sounds like that Freudian shit.

Take away his cocaine and his cigar and what do you have? The father of psychology? Better his shit than some I've entertained.

[mtmynd]

Sounds like that Freudian shit.

Take away his cocaine and his cigar and what do you have? The father of psychology? Better his shit than some I've entertained.

[stilltrucking]

I have not been able to find the post by you that I was looking for when I stumbled on this old post from April of this year.

The one I was looking for was a joke you made about Buddhists do it deeper. I quoted that to jimbo and he took offense I think judging by the emoticon he used.

Strange times we live in, I don't have a clue.

Freud is like a cultural anthropologist for me. An archeologist of the human psyche.

Thanks for replying Cecil. Kerouac said the only meaning the world has is how it unfolds for him. Kind of narcissistic I suppose. But my respect for him as a writer grows. Even while I feel so disgusted with my own scribbling.

I have heard "On The Road" described as a bunch of guys looking for cheap dope and teen age mexican whores. St Jack was pure, I wish I could adopt his values. Mine are so 19th century Victorian Jewish Vienna.

[stilltrucking]

Sorry I got off topic Barry. a Sad topic.

Barry wrote:

Other than catching the occasional predator, it doesn't seem that anyone's doing anything to help those girls.

I think Sarah Palin is trying to help those girls. Her daughter is making advertisements for abstinence. That ought to help. Irony ain't pretty sometimes. Reminds me of the Steve Martin routine, Comedy is not pretty.

Speaking of Margarete Meade if I had a adolescent grandchild I would want them to read her autobiography, Blackberry Winter.