If state lawmakers pass House Bill 1058, as they should, prosecutors won’t have to choose between a potentially life-crippling felony charge and no charge at all when confronting teens who trade nude photos of themselves on their smartphones.
The bill, with bipartisan sponsors, would provide a new misdemeanor charge of “misuse of electronic images by a juvenile.” And a conviction wouldn’t label the juvenile as a sex offender.
Prosecutors have shown restraint in teen “sexting” incidents — and it may be that no charges will be appropriate in most future cases, too. But prosecutors should have an option that doesn’t put the teens in the same category as consumers of true child pornography.
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