The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that the Pennsylvania House of Representatives has passed a law designed to lower the criminal sanctions associated with teen sexting. Under the proposed law, anyone under the age of 18 who sends a sexually explicit depiction of himself or another minor to another person who is under the age of 18 will be guilty of a second degree misdemeanor. Additionally, the proposed law decriminalizes a minor’s transmission or possession of a depiction of a minor who is simply nude. The proposed law does not protect depictions of “either sexual intercourse or deviate sexual intercourse or the penetration, however slight, of the genitals or anus of a minor with any part of a person’s body, masturbation, sadism or masochism.”
Adults who possess illicit pictures of minors are still guilty of a felony-level offense.
The proposed law must be passed by the Pennsylvania Senate and signed by Governor Tom Corbett before it is enacted.
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