And, no, it’s not the 16-year-old girl whose nude photo get forwarded to a couple of dozen people by her angry 18-year-old boyfriend. It’s the boyfriend. Thanks to America’s most current sex panic, 18-year-old Phillip Alpert was convicted of distributing child porn, a felony, “and sentenced to five years probation and required by Florida law to register as a sex offender,” reports CNN.
“You will find me on the registered sex offender list next to people who have raped children, molested kids, things like that, because I sent child pornography,” says Alpert in disbelief, explaining, “You think child pornography, you think 6-year-old, 3-year-old little kids who can’t think for themselves, who are taken advantage of. That really wasn’t the case.”
Alpert’s attorney Larry Walters agrees and he’s fighting to get Alpert removed from Florida’s sex offender registry. The law lags behind the technology, he says. “Sexting is treated as child pornography in almost every state and it catches teens completely offguard because this is a fairly natural and normal thing for them to do. It is surprising to us as parents, but for teens it’s part of their culture.”
We’re gonna have to make it illegal for teenagers to own cell phones with cameras or we’re gonna have to give them drugs to delay the onset of puberty until after they’re 18 or we going to have to accept the fact that we live in a brave new world where the intersection of horny teens and newer technologies is going to require us to rethink the simplistic application of laws that criminalize the possession and distribution of these sorts of images, particularly in cases where they were created by and for teenagers.
Yes, Alpert was a douchebag; yes, it was wrong for him to forward that picture to embarrass and humiliate his girlfriend. But if he’s a child pornographer and a sex offender, so are the overwhelming majority of his peers. Making an example of an unlucky asshole like Alpert isn’t going to stop teenagers from sexting each other anymore than making an example of few hundred thousands unlucky pot smokers has stopped people from smoking pot.
So it’s true–legalizing marijuana opens the door to legalizing child pornography!
Also, some probation officer is being payed with your taxes to watch this guy, who is obviously not a “sex predator” for 25 years.
I hope the conservatives/republicans are jumping all over this as a waste of government resources and spending.
Make it illegal for teens to have cell phones? Sir, your ideas intrigue me. Please sign me up for your newsletter. Can we take away their drivers licenses too?
All I’m saying is: Imagine a world where no teenager drives, and no teenager has a cell phone. Just imagine with me for a minute…
I wish someone would “sext” me.
Let’s not lose sight of the fact that the instant we turn 18 we suddenly become aware of the existence of genitals. Simultaneously we develop total amnesia of any prior romantic feelings that we might have experienced.
So yes these freaks should be branded with scarlet letters and hounded to their graves.
Sending a nude photo of your underage girlfriend to a couple of dozen people is “a fairly natural and normal thing” for an 18-year-old to do?
I am so old.
Even armed with a Polaroid camera and access to a photocopier, the precocious back-in-the-day 18-year-old me (who did, in fact, date a 16 year old) wouldn’t have found it natural and normal to take nude photos of that girlfriend or distribute copies of those photos after the inevitable break-up.
This isn’t human nature, this is learned behavior (or unlearned cautions to behavior).
Is it too late to round up Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, et al and have them burned at the stake as witches?
Probably, huh?
wow, this is the same point I (and Frizzelle before he backed down) was trying to make weeks ago about the gay kid in Wisconsin, (whose actions are admittedly and allegedly worse than this kid). Teenagers are sexual beings who want to have sex with each other and enjoy looking at sexually provocative images of each other and sometimes they make dumb mistakes and do dumb and/or awful things because of these urges, (just like “adults”) but the desire for one teenager to have sexual encounters with another teenager despite their ages or local laws, doesn’t make that teenager a “child” molester…
oh, and teen sexuality makes adults very, very nervous and teens can often be treated unfairly because of their age.
That is all.
I do not think its ok at all to distribute nude photos of someone else without their permission. Its especially worse when that person is 16 or your girlfriend. He should be prosecuted for this.
But calling it child pornography is clearly not accurate, and putting him on the sex offender registry is the reason that registry is so meaningless these days. Since he didn’t have her permission to distribute her photos, he SHOULD be punished(unlike the cases where the girls themselves have been prosecuted, which is ridiculous). But they should really come up with a different charge, like sexual harassment.
@6–Why are you saying the women should be burned at the stake?
What about tossing Rick Solomon, Tommy Lee and Bam Margera into a volcano?
(Fine with me, actually…but it’s just not as metaphorically pleasing as the witch analogy.)
And yes, I’ve just criticized and answered the criticism to my own post. What? What? Easier to do it myself than to spend the next dozen or so posts answering for a bad analogy, right?
@8 If you send out a nude photo of yourself there is no other reasonable expectation than that it will be forever in the public domain.
I don’t feel sorry for him, he completely distributed naked pictures of her without her consent, those pictures will follow her around for the rest of her life. Pictures shared between kids is fine, but those pictures were not his to share and he did it purely to smear her name forever because he was angry. It would be completely disgusting and outrageous if he had done it to another adult, let alone a 16 yr old.
He deserves to have his life damaged in the same way as he damaged hers. Fair is fair, and he got off way too easy. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
“…so are the overwhelming majority of his peers.”
You’re saying the overwhelming majority of teens send around nude photos of themselves on their cell phones?
Bullshit. Once again you make sweeping, ridiculous claims based on no knowledge whatsoever. (Yes, I’ve raised teens and know a lot more.)
But rappers do this all the time and never serve jail time for it …
@10,
Right, and certainly someone who’s not even an adult yet should magically be responsible, intelligent, and mature enough to know that.
This guy doesn’t deserve to be labeled a sex offender, but he does deserve punishment. I hope the asshole has learned his lesson.
@6: Exactly.
Sharing naked pictures: normal.
Distributing naked pictures of someone else to dozens of people in an attempt to “get back” at a teenage girl and ruin her reputation for life: Fucking psychopathic. Not Normal. I went to highschool well after kids had their fancy camera phones and I never saw anything close to this.
@14 That they are immature and irresponsible doesn’t change the consequences for their actions.
@16: Um, you’re sort of blaming the victim. It’s like saying getting mugged is a consequence of leaving my house. Her actions are normal for teenagers to have and plenty of teens and adults share dirty pictures with each other and nothing bad happens.
Unfortunately she was dating a psychopath who would have ended up on the sex offender registry sooner or later. Better sooner I suppose though I think he got off way too easy.
I’m not “blaming the victim.” I’m saying that unless you’ve been living in a cave you know how interested the world is going to be in your photo. And there is no getting it back from the internet. And you have given the thing away quite cavalierly and with no strings attached. This should have been obvious to her.
Oh, and you’ve obviously never met a psychopath.
If they had been practicing naked picture abstinence until marriage, none of this would’ve happened.
@17: psychopath? You have no idea what the word means and undermine its value by tossing it around so lightly. And the second you send an electronic image of yourself to someone else you lose all rights over what happens to it next. May not be totally true in the legal world or the moral airy-fairy world you’re in, but that’s how it is in the real world.
I still pine for the days I filled note books with hundreds of heated, explicit line drawing of every sexual thing and sexual idea the overheated middle school queer boy can daydream about … interestingly, girl tits and ass were thrown in for good measure … I was a skilled drawing student and as I look back, they were very explicit and erotic and not bad at all.
My mom found some out in the rec room, and turned and threw them in a burning fire in the fireplace. She said” keep them personal and in your room and you do have some talent” … nice grounded mother.
Today, if known, I presume I would go to jail. Something crazy is happenng out there around sex and teens, crazy.
And, let’s talk about show and tell at Boy Scout Camp, NOT with older guys. Just the routine get all hot and bothered and check out the other guys in the woods or dorms – rituals of puberty. I suppose on a complaint in this era, we would all be sex offenders.
Crazy, crazy and really unbalanced and un natural.
I used to get great and pleasant hard ons in shop from the vibrating machines – what a crime, surely.
@21
He fits exactly the definition of psychopath and he should probably be in an institution right now. He ruined a kid’s life and now all he can do is bitch about what a victim he is, and it’s not his fault because he was tired.
And “even though it is immoral and illegal people occasionally do bad things to other people so therefore this slut has no rights” is not an argument, it’s just fucking retarded.
Hey, how about this one?
The second you send out pictures of underage kids without their consent in order to humiliate and/or control them, you will go on a sex offender registry and you will be punished and sometimes even face embarrassment/mistrust when other people see you on there. This is true legally, morally AND in the real world.
This is all the equivalent to sentencing a person who killed someone’s avatar in Second Life for murder.
A 16 year old is not a “kid.”
@23: The very definition of sex panic as labeled by Dan. Really? Her life is ruined?
EmmiG you obviously have unresolved issues that you need to address. Take a breath realize that you are spouting some pretty extremist shit and calm the fuck down.
What this idiot did was bad but the sentencing is not what that intent of child porn laws where meant to cover. And I say this concerning both this guy as well as the 14 year old girl that was charged recently under child porn statutes for “sexting” nude photos of her self.
@26: yes, one’s life does tend to be very significantly impacted when you have dozens of naked pictures of yourself being sent around, though ruined might be pessimistic. I know it would be extremely difficult for an adult, and I can only imagine what it would be like for a 16 year old girl to go through that.
And yes, 16 is a “kid”. I might even go so far to say the 18 yr old is a kid in many ways too, though he still deserves much worse than 5 years probation.
Sexophobia is killing our children. Religion is the culprit.
@27
I agree that the 14 yr old girl’s case was extreme, since those pictures were consensual and well-intentioned.
I don’t think what he was doing is “porn”, since when a child pornographer distributes naked pics of a 16 year old, he is doing so to make a profit. This guy is distributing naked pics of a 16 year old in order to humiliate/control her which to me really isn’t all *that* better and certainly isn’t the sort of difference where he can try to pretend he is a victim.
Obviously this young man needs to be KILLED because he is a MONSTER!
I also love how adults are so stupid and naive about teen sexuality. “I’ve raised teens and normal teens just do NOT behave like this!”
puh-leeze….what’s next: a lecture on how NO ONE ever had sex or a sexual thought when they were a teen and EVERYONE was a pure and holy virgin and all this sin and promiscuity must have started happening in the last couple years because society is now so horrible and decadant!
People have been saying that tired old shit for 3000 years…
@31
I am a teen and the issue isn’t that they have sexual thoughts. What he had was not sexual thoughts, he had thoughts of socially punishing a girl by using her sexuality against her because he was ~sleepy~. Way to miss the point.
He sought to sexually victimize his former gf by humiliating her sexually in as broad a public arena as he had access to. Whether it was a huge crime, small crime, or common crime, it was still a crime. If your horn-toad 16 year old boy forces his 15 year old gf into sex, its still rape. Sorry, but kids gotta learn these rules too. Maybe we can come up with a compromise position where they don’t have to register for the rest of their lives, but there needs to be a consequence for this that strongly says: don’t go there.
@30: Alpert’s girlfriend took the picture and sent it to him. That’s consensual.
It doesn’t matter that you have such a big problem with his motives and behavior. If someone runs naked through the town square then what’s done is done. They may be embarrassed later but they need to deal with what can’t be undone.
You haven’t explained how a 16 year old is a child. Once you hit puberty you leave childhood behind. It’s time to start recognizing the reality of sexual development. There isn’t a magic switch at 18 that takes you from childhood to adulthood. Deal with it.
@25: 16 is definitely still a “kid”. Brain research shows very real differences between the teen brain and the adult brain, and 16 yo brain is definitely not yet fully formed. The main delay in development is around decision making and anticipating consequences. No surprise to anyone who knows, is raising or ever was a teen.
I blame cell phones.
We should cut off the hands of people who own them.
Shake it like a polaroid picture!
@33: What punishment would there be if a 50 year old man distributed nude pics of his 50 year old ex? Possibly malicious harassment, but more likely civil charges.
The problem here isn’t that the kid is being held accountable for his actions. The problem is that he is being held accountable for distributing kiddie porn, which is so obviously not what this was that it’s nothing more than malicious harassment on the part of the prosecuting attorney.
Yes, he deserves to pay for making a terrible decision that materially hurts another person. He does not deserve to pay the penalty for filming a 7 year old giving him a bj. The latter is what kiddie porn laws are designed to address, not teen drama.
I think there has to be a difference between “illegality” and “douchery” – what this guy did was surely douche-like behavior, but should it really fall under the header of “illegal”?
I mean, what if the girlfriend had sent her picture to the wrong person who hated her and forwarded it on just to be a bitch/dick about it? Illegal or douchery?
@34
Yes, I know it was sent to Alpert consensually, which is why I don’t think Alpert should be charged for possessing his gfs pic in the first place–just with spreading it to dozens of people in an attempt to control and humiliate/control her sexually.
Instead you try to shove the blame on the girl: she just needs to DEAL with being in an abusive relationships because….she took dirty pictures of herself! And you said I had “sex panic”? How about the guy DEALS with the consequences, which he actually deserves?
A 16 year old is a “kid”, aka slang for young person, which she is. As for “child”, that depends on your definition. 18 is the cutoff for our legal system in which “I didn’t know any better” no longer counts as a defense, and I don’t know why you are going on about a magic switch.
EmmiG, are you related to Loveschild?
Yes, the boy is an asshole for distributing the photos, and yes, he deserves some punishment of some sort.
However, child porn laws are the wrong way to go about it, and so are sex offender registries. Clearly sexting is a newish phenomena, and the prosecutors are trying to shoehorn a new crime into old laws that don’t really apply. Lawmakers need to sit down and think about this rationally and write some new law with appropriate punishment to the act. To misuse child porn and sex offender laws in this way completely waters down those laws.
And seriously, I can tell you’re pissed at the guy, but psychopath? Really? Not even close.
@38
He has 5 years probation. He is technically under the sex offender registry as a child pornographer and that’s where the similarities in punishment end. He got off way, way easy.
Re 40 It’s funny, you keep talking about how people here are “blaming the victim” but you are the one MAKING her a victim. How do you know she was humiliated? You’re the one painting her into the victim corner.
Yeah, agreeing with everyone who thinks what he did was hugely douchey, but not really “illegal”, and definitely not deserving of the major stigma that comes with sex offender registration. Somebody suggested malicious harassment, which sounds like an appropriate charge, if any.
He’s got a good reason to be reacting the way he is. People get killed for being what he’s been labelled as.
There’s always a risk in sending out nudie photos, even to the most trustworthy person. Pissing off someone tends to ramp up the unpredictability of their behaviour. The fact they’re out there sucks, but seriously, people who’ll “shun” you for being naked and having horny tendencies aren’t people you need to be around. She’s only 16 — she can change her ties more easily than someone with a house and a job.
@42: Being a registered sex offender isn’t “getting off easy,” and is meant for those who commit some form of rape or sexual assault, including trafficking in child pornography. It is not meant for people who attempt to embarrass their exes with humiliating photos.
And my point, again, is that there are laws that address, and are appropriate to, embarrassing your exes with humiliating photos. Putting him on a sex offender registry for the rest of his life is dramatically disproportionate to the wrong he did to this girl.
@41
A child pornographer distributes pictures of naked 16 year old girls to make a profit.
This guy distributes pictures of naked 16 year old girls in order to abuse/humiliate them.
So…there might be a moral high ground this guy can take, but it is a pretty damn small one and it’s not worth losing any sleep over.
Psychopath:
A person with an antisocial personality disorder, manifested in aggressive, perverted, criminal, or amoral behavior without empathy or remorse.
Mmm…sounds like him to me. No normal human being should be capable of doing what he did.
@43
Hmm….yase, maybe she secretly *liked* having her pictures distributed to dozens of people without her knowledge or consent by the guy she trusted. This changes everything! If only this guy thought to hire you as a lawyer.
Oh Emmi, welcome to life. You make a decision and it comes back to bite you in the ass, sometimes over and over. This girl made a decision to take nude pictures of herself and send them to her boyfriend. Things went south, he got pissed off and sent them out to others. What he did was wrong, but not worthy of spending decades on a sex offender list. This girl will grow up and hopefully not think of what happened to her as “the worst thing ever” and be wiser about how she exercises her sexuality. Because believe me, this isn’t the worst thing ever.
To be honest, I wish he’d been nailed civilly, not criminally.
@27
EmmiG,
Outside of the news reports, what do you really know about this case?
Have you read the trial transcripts, talked to witnessess, friends of the 18 and 16 year old? Have you considered the specific place and culture in which these events took place? I ask because you seem to know a lot about what the eighteen year old was trying to do, like you were right there inside his head as he was doing it!
Tell me, how can you be so certain the punishment fits the crime in this case?
Are you familiar with the idea that sometimes people are mistreated and suffer permanent harm by criminally misguided systems of justice? And, that without vigilence and skepticism, the law is always in danger of becoming only the most effective way of violating rights imaginable?
From your support for completly destroying a strangers life for what could, judging merely by what the press has said, be no more than youthful stupidity, I’d say you are really not understanding that side of it. You should try and Step back from your anger, and consider this.
@45
Those pictures could very well haunt her for the rest of her life, so “rest of his life” is exactly what he deserves in any case.
A sex offender registry means he will be somewhat embarrassed and people might not trust him as easy (as they shouldn’t). Depending on where he lives, he may have trouble finding housing. Oh woop. Poor baby.
@47
And the dude made the decision to send those pictures out to dozens of people. Things went south, he faced criminal charges, as he well should. Hopefully he will be wiser in the future about how he chooses to handle his anger and maybe he’ll get help for his abusive tendencies before he tries another relationship, though looking at his comments on the matter it seems that he is too busy bitching about 5 yrs probation.
@48
If you look at the article, it admits he only did it because he was angry and stupid. Not that there are many good reasons to do what he did.
At the end of the day, the guy has 5 years probation for what very well can ruin that girls life, and it most certainly will ruin the rest of adolescence. (Time will tell I suppose and hopefully she has a strong support network and all that).
The fact that so many people think she deserves it for the crime of….taking pictures of herself just shows how backward they are when it comes to teenage sexuality. Abuse is ok in a relationship because she was the one who trusted him in the first place, apparently. Who knows. I don’t even get the people who are trying to defend this guy.