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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   12020 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 10, 2026

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Banning mere possession (with no before-the-fact knowledge of production) is already on shaky ground, free-speech-absolutist-wise. As soon as you cross into "This should be illegal because it resembles actual CSAM" you have to turn in your absolutist card.

Actually, you've probably already lost your card when you ban production, because CSAM includes material produced by sexting teens.

CSAM includes material produced by sexting teens.

I think this is an extremely noncentral example of what people talk about when they talk about CSAM.

I'd consider the point of being an absolutist to be that one considers the principle to apply absolutely, such that it is just as appropriate to apply to noncentral cases as to central cases.

My point was that this is the first I've heard of teens sexting being categorised as CSAM, and would genuinely love to know in which jurisdictions it's categorised as such.

Central enough to produce real felony charges, apparently.

Could you provide a citation?

https://www.aclu.org/news/juvenile-justice/minnesota-prosecutor-charges-sexting-teenage-girl-child-pornography

https://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/crime-penalties/juvenile/sexting.htm

https://repository.uclawsf.edu/hastings_comm_ent_law_journal/vol32/iss1/1/

https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-28255225

Such a case was also discussed somewhere on the motte but I couldn't immediately find it.

Jane Doe v. Rice County was dropped after outcry, but did have charges brought to start with.

It's not the common mode: this study (caveat: 2012, mail survey of police, academic study) show around 15% of sexting-like cases with no aggravating conditions resulted in charges, though only a tiny number resulted in a felony conviction. But charges specifically aren't an extreme outlier.

((There are epicycles that make this legal doctrine, or even the contested legal doctrine restricting synthetic CSAM, defensible, but they're... a real big mess and I don't like thinking about the topic.))

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