The Washington Post is devoting some of their space to a group of teenage girls to blog about their experience in Africa. Here’ s the intro:…

I think it is absolutely preposterous. What is the core purpose of the PROTECT Act? Why is child pornography illegal and why does it carry such heavy punishments? I believe it is because the purpose is to prevent the coercion and abuse of children. A child who is manipulated and/or forced to participate in such an act will be mentally damaged. These children are completely reliant on their parents, guardians, etc for everything in life and forcing them to participate, thus betraying that absolute trust, is a horrible, despicable thing to do to a child.

However, I don’t see any of the aforementioned situations occurring in the case of those girls. They were simply being fun, flirty and sexy with their respective boys. These girls took photographs of THEMSELVES because they WANTED to. Nobody coerced or abused them. No adult, or any other person, for that matter, was involved, so who are we protecting them from by taking legal action against them? Themselves? While it may not be the most intelligent thing to do, as Nikol explained so very well, due to the immediate loss of control, it is still their choice to do so. They made that choice. Does that make them criminals? Did they take these pictures with an intent to distribute and profit by them? No. They sent them to their boys, meant just for them. This certainly does not make them criminals in my eyes.

It’s not the government’s job to press charges and ruin the lives of these young girls who were merely experimenting and having fun with their newfound feelings. If anything, it is up to the parents of these children to have discussions about the dangers of doing such things. Not the dangers brought on by overzealous prosecutors, hopefully, but the dangers that were mentioned by Nikol.

Incidentally, I would like to extend my gratitude to Nikol, Britney, Neil, Larissa and Guy. Your show is a wonderful way for everyone to learn about these (unfortunately) sensitive issues. There is so very much misinformation floating around in schools and on the web that it is very difficult to get a clear understanding of many of the issues surrounding sex and sexuality. I’ve learned a lot and I’m sure many others have as well! Thank you all very much for this fantastic program!

-Tyler

The very low sound quality makes it really hard to listen to Nikol. A new microphone is definitely needed.

Thanks for the efforts to educate us all!