Potentially, at least. I heard a report on the radio this morning to the effect that 'child protection' campaigners want it to be made a crime in this country for an adult to send any message of 'a sexual nature' to a minor, even if the message is 'text only' - sending 'sexual' images is illegal already, of course. Given that almost any image involving a minor can be deemed to have sexual connotations when it suits the authorities' purposes, I can't imagine any legislation involving text will be any less widely drawn, raising the prospect of any contact at all between adults and minors, unless the adult is related to or in an authority position in relation to the minor, being effectively barred. I recall reading about one, at least, American state (Maine, if I remember correctly), enacting a law that made it illegal in many circumstances for an adult even to look at a minor, and I wouldn't be surprised if there are people who would like that to be the case here as well. It wouldn't be many steps beyond what is being proposed for books to begin to be proscribed - if you own a copy of Lolita, or Sandel, or myriad others, you're doubtless already a 'suspect' - and not many more until the Orwellian concept of 'thoughtcrime' was invoked, on the basis that if you even think about minors in a non-neutral way, you'd be presumed to be a 'molester in waiting'. And once one aspect of freedom of thought is suppressed, how long would it take for politicians to realise that extending those powers far more widely would be highly conducive to maintaining their position and privileges? Not very long at all, I would venture to suggest.
Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B
Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B
Abuse of children is awful. Abuse of people with zero intent to ever hurt a child is just as bad. I can't figure it out.
ReplyDeleteOur idiots over here are arguing about whether or not to stop charging kids a felons for sexting amongst themselves...not with adults or anything, just each other. And some want them on the sex offenders registry for life! What fools they are!
Peace <3
Jay
Hello Jay
DeleteAny form of abuse of others is bad, but where the power imbalance is greater, the offence is all the more egregious. As to the criminalisation of interactions between young people of the same age, I came across a story recently which I was sorely tempted to blog about, but eventually didn't, because the events described proved to be a few years old, and I had no way of corroborating it. Two boys were caught playing with each other in a school toilet, and being under the age of consent, but in a US state with no minimum age of criminal responsibility, they were charged with sexually abusing each other, the charges raised carrying a potential sentence of 50 years in prison and lifetime sex offender registration. The boys were six years old. The charges were reportedly dismissed in due course, subject to the boys going into 'therapy' - as if that wasn't a concept with enough potential horrors of its own - but the fact that children of that age were faced with even the possibility of their lives being destroyed in such a fashion is, as far as I'm concerned, utter insanity.
Love & best wishes
Sammy B