As mentioned recently on this blog, Alabama is pushing a bill that would exclude teen sexting from the growing list of registerable offenses. However, it does not go far enough. So Lenore Skenazy of the "Free Range Kids" website (a good website that is among the growing skeptics of the sex offender registry) has created an online petition to compel the state legislature to change the laws to stop criminalizing teens for engaging in behavior best addressed by parents, not police. Take a few moments to sign this petition today. Click the link below to access it.
https://www.change.org/p/alabama-state-house-stop-criminalizing-young-people-who-engage-in-consensual-sex-or-sexting
STOP CRIMINALIZING YOUNG PEOPLE WHO ENGAGE IN CONSENSUAL SEX OR SEXTING
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 14 is the most common age of sex offenders.
That stat shocks most people, but it shouldn't. Young people have sex with other young people. That can be against the law in America, even when it is consensual.
This has led to over 200,000 minors being placed on the Sex Offender Registry. Once on it, their lives become a nightmare. They can't live near a school, find work, or even go online. Often they face death threats.
Criminalizing consensual sex or sexting is not making our children any safer. In fact, our kids have a better chance of ending up ON the registry than of being harmed BY someone on it.
For these reasons, we urge you to decriminalize consensual sex or sexting between young people past puberty.
You are taking a matter that should be handled within the family and using it to destroy a young persons life. This is a charge that could stay with them for the remainder of their lives. It makes them more likely to drop out of school, commit suicide, and it limits their future in monetary ways as well. Sexting should be handled by the parents not by law enforcement. Our government, and laws have stepped way over the line.
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