Should Teen "Sexting" be Criminalized?

Last winter, a 14-year old from Olympia, WA wanted to send her boyfriend a special momento.  In an exercise of judgment she would come to profoundly regret, she snapped a full-on frontal nude with her cell phone.

She then attached the pic to her boyfriend Isaiah's number and pushed send, sealing her fate.

For his part, Isaiah was coaxed by another girl he thought was good friends with his girlfriend into forwarding the pic.  Actually, the other girl was a rival for Isaiah's affections with an epic episode of cyber-bullying on her mind.
 
Annotating the pic with a disparaging comment, the rival did a global attach, publishing it to all her contacts.  From there, it went viral within hours.

Before school started the next day, parents and middle school administrators alike were scrambling with damage control.  By mid-day, local police were on the scene conducting interviews.  Isaiah was arrested at the school by the end of the day.

Isaiah, the rival, and another middle school student were charged with distributing child pornography; a felony.  The three teenage offenders spent at least one night in the local juvenile detention center and were brought before a magistrate in standard blue jumpsuits.

The community was pitched into an uproar.  Some parents wanted the accused teens tried as adults; others wanted the subject of the photo charged along with the publishers.

In the end, the prosecuting attorney moderated the charges, offering a misdemeanor reduction equivalent to our "disorderly conduct", with the opportunity to earn a dismissal in exchange for some very targeted community service.

As a component of their probation, the teen misdemeanants were required to create a public service  campaign about the hazards of sexting.  The prosecutor fashioned a sentence that would both capitalize on the aftershock of the incident as well as educate the public about what was acceptable conduct for their children.

Looks like "mission accomplished".

But you would be fooling yourself to think that our culture's sexual saturation is going to change anytime soon. Our children are bombarded with images on a 24/7 basis.  Remember Motorola's Super Bowl ad of Megan Fox snapping a pic of herself in a bubble bath.  Wonder who she sent that pic to...?

We here in the Detroit area are well familiar with sexting hazards; it basically brought down the hip-hop Mayor after all. [Well, technically a perjury conviction accomplished that; but still, just sayin....]

So think twice before you push send folks.  This bit of digital common sense applies to any manner of content you are about to publish.

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"First and Ten": New Teen Driving Law

The new driving law that takes effect Wednesday is known as "First and Ten".  Teens must stop adding (non-family) passengers under age-21 after the first one; and back in the driveway by ten o'clock pm.

The present curfew is midnight, without any passenger restrictions.  The Michigan State Police website has an excellent summary of the new restrictions.

The new law applies to all level 2, or "intermediate" drivers in Michigan's Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) program.  These are drivers who are at least 16-years of age who have also completed their coursework and road test.

Statistics published by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety provided the impetus for the new law.  These stats show that in 2008, more than 60% of all teen age passenger fatalities involve a teen age driver.  Also, teens are disproportionately responsible for all traffic fatalities: nearly 20% even though they make-up only 14% of America's driving population.

Driving is indeed a priviledge and central to our way of life.  Modern distractions such as cell phones, GPS devices, and sound systems all contribute toward shifting a drivers' focus from the road to the interior of the vehicle.  Add a few teen age friends and a teen driver and it's an accident waiting to happen.

The new teen driving law has been splashed on bill boards around Metro-Detroit to increase awareness among drivers; parents and teens alike.  

Violators of the new law will receive 2-points on their master driving record and will have their probationary driving period extended for up to a year.

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Dr. Dre Successfully Defends Privacy Suit Brought By Detroit Officials

The case has percolated up and down Michigan's legal system for a decade.  Today, the Michigan Supreme Court handed Dr. Dre a long-sought win over former Detroit officials who tried to sue the rapper and a host of promoters on a tort-based eavesdropping theory.

In reversing the Michigan Court of Appeals, the High Court adopted the rationale of dissenting judge Chris Murray who concluded that no reasonable juror could conclude that the city officials had a reasonable expectation of privacy in their heated back-stage discussions with Dre's crew at the Joe Louis Arena in the summer of 2000.

Considering that MTV was in the house with their camras rolling, I agree with Judge Murray.

The dispute concerned how Detroit officials dealt with some of the raunchier segments of Dre's show.
Police commander (and later City Council President) Gary Brown and other police officials met with Dre's concert promoters backstage prior to the show and advised that power to the show would be cut if the explicit video was shown.  After some haggling, and perhaps some arm twisting, the promoters talked the performers to go on with the show, sans intro. The exchanges were openly recorded by a tour film crew.

When the tour moved North the next day to the Palace of Auburn Hills, word had leaked to authorities in that community that the Detroit Police successfully canned the objectionable video intro by threatening to cut power to the event.  The tour went to federal court, that day, and obtained an injunction from U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Edmunds to prevent any interference with the show on behalf of the police.  The show at the Palace featured the explicit video introduction.

The tour left Michigan, and the promoters sued Detroit and settled for their attorney fees.  Former Mayor Archer issued a public statement that conceded the possibility of an unconstitutional "prior restraint" on behalf of the Detroit Police officers, and recognized the federal court injunction that was subsequently issued.

Six months later, Dre and his producers released a DVD of the tour with some bonus tracks which included a 10-minute segment titled, "Detroit Controversy".  This segment depicted some of the heated exchanges between Commander Brown, the DPD, City officials, and the tour promoters at the Joe.

The officers sued on eavesdropping and other tort theories and saw their case summarily tossed-out by the Wayne County Circuit Court.  The officers' first appeal to the Michigan Court of Appeals resulted in an affirmance of the summary disposition, except on the eavesdropping claim.  The intermediate appellate court said dismissal of that claim was premature as discovery had not been completed.

The case was sent back to the Wayne Circuit Court to complete the discovery process.  The additional evidence simply showed the Detroit government officials and police conducting the meeting in "public" areas backstage; doors open and hangers-on gawking.

Even after this so-called "additional evidence" was adduced and discovery finally closed, the Wayne Circuit Court again granted summary disposition in favor of Dr. Dre and the concert promoters; the case again was appealed by the officers to the Court of Appeals.

The victory for Dr. Dre in the Michigan Supreme Court further strengthens the First Amendment reputation of Honigman Miller's Herschel Fink.

The final outcome was hard-fought and the right decision.  A public figure, back stage with his promoters, trying to work-out content problems with public officials while MTV camera crews record the give-and-take, does not describe a private moment.  Whatever words are uttered in the mix are fair game to digitized and splashed throughout the world wide web.

To force the rapper through a trial on the public official's tort claim would have a chilling effect on such productions.

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