OLYMPIA, Wash. – A bill that would lighten the penalties for teens caught sharing or possessing nude cellphone images of themselves was signed into law Wednesday by Gov. Jay Inslee after passing both houses of the Legislature by comfortable margins, the ACLU reports.
Under the state’s previous pornography laws, minors could be charged with a felony for sending nude photos or “selfies” to one another, potentially putting them on the sex offender registry for life. That’s because the old law made no distinction between teens who send or receive nude photos of each other and adults who share hard-core child pornography.
The new measure, known as SHB 1742, changes that by preventing minors from being charged with a felony for possessing a nude photo of themselves. A first offense would usually result in counseling, however, a teen could be charged with simple or gross misdemeanor if the person in the photo is between 13 and 17 years old.
The bill’s prime sponsor, state Rep. Noel Frame, D-Seattle, said the measure is designed to educate teens and decriminalize possession of nude photos so that they can come forward and report exploitation. Existing laws banning revenge porn would still be in place, so teens convicted of that would still be subject to stiffer penalties.
State Rep. Sana Tenn, who voted in favor of the bill, says the new approach to teen “sexting” makes sense.
“So … the people sharing these images can get the help that they need and understand how damaging and how inappropriate messages are of those sort that are sent,” she said.
Another supporter, Rep. Roger Goodman, said teenagers sometimes make “really stupid decisions” and “we don’t want to criminalize decisions that are not intended to harm or profit from what might be inappropriate behavior.”
Some Republicans, however, voiced opposition to the bill during debate on the House floor.
One Republican, Rep. Brad Klippert, said the bill means a teen could now widely disseminate an image or video of another minor engaged in a sex act, without facing much in the way of legal consequences at all.
But overall support was strong enough to override the opponents.
The measure was supported by Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Team Child, the Washington Defender Association, the Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and the Justice for Girls Coalition.
