Teen lands on sex offender registry after dating app hookup

[urfvrtweapon]

Comments

[maynardsong]

I mean, if the girl and her mom support him, then who'd have turned him in in the first place?

[fenris_lorsrai]

Not being able to live at home because he has a 15 year old brother doesn't seem to make much sense with what he's accused of doing. He wasn't accused of incest or same sex statutory rape, so unless social services suspected there was unreported sexual contact with the younger sibling, that doesn't seem to make much sense. If he's forced to live somewhere else, he likely will have LESS supervision (and so will sib) just because parent has to split time between two homes

[star_maple]

I've heard of a lot of 'possession of child pornography' charges for underage kids who sext or possess pictures of peers which have spread around through school (think the Stubenville case), and things like that.

[louisadkins]

Example: Two teens sexting. Person one takes a pic and sends it to person two. Both are arrested. Person one and two both are guilty of possession of child porn. Person one is also guilty of production and intent to distribute/distribution of. (I'm sure I'm missing things here, but I know of those, at least.) It doesn't matter if they are both 15, or more to the point, it specifically matters that they are both 15. Since they are both underage, they are both victims -of the other-, even if the other is the same age, to the day. This, of course, also means they are both legally perps. Both these criminals (not children, anymore, or people) will almost certainly be given sentences, and there may be a push to bring them to trial as adults. The mandatory laws automatically list them both as child sex offenders, but it also lists their age and address, I believe, which must be updated if they move. There is no 'reasonable person' standard, even in the case that they both produced professionally generated fake IDs and even went

[fenris_lorsrai]

at #2, EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

[spyral_path]

If you believe 14 year olds are capable of giving consent, then you should want his sentence overturned. But if you believe that 14 year olds are children incapable of understanding the consequences of adult decisions, then laws need to be in place to protect them, no matter how mature they look or how old they say they are.

[silver_apples]

But this isn't protecting children, because from the information we have here, Anderson isn't a predator, he's not a pedophile. He was looking for consensual sex from someone old enough to give it. He screwed up, and he is at fault, but he is not a threat to society. Give him the 90 days, order him not to have any contact with the girl, order him to stay off of dating and hook-up apps/sites, but don't label him as a sex offender for the rest of his life. Not only is that far too much of a punishment, but cases like this damage the effectiveness of the registry. People know that teenagers are on the list for having sex with other teenagers, for looking and sending naked pictures of people their own age, for having sex with someone who lied about their age, and so it makes it easier to believe that actual predators don't belong on the list either, that they are the victims of an overzealous legal system.

[nesmith]

This is one of my beefs with the sex offender registry; it's a good idea, but you can get put on those registries for things that have nothing to do with serious sexual crimes. I have plenty of stories since part of my job entails auditing the sex offender searches we do for clients, so I've seen more than I care to, but I've also seen a couple that make me say "They got on this list for THAT!?"

[shadwing]

Happened to a friend of mine when she was Student Teaching, she hugged a kid and a teacher saw that (who had a bit of a grudge against her) and got said student to tell the principle that he had been 'sexually assaulted'.

On the plus side, the truth came out, on the bad she had to withdraw from student teaching at the school AND by state law even though it was a false accusation, the fact she WAS accused of sexual assault on a student would remain on her record so any school board trying to hire her would see THAT in a check...basically totally screwing her over before she could start teaching.

[nesmith]

That's the kind of thing I mean. Courts have ways of sealing/expunging records or information so they don't come up but it can be difficult and time-consuming. Even though most jobs can't use an acquittal against someone, when it comes to jobs involving children those kinds of things will make a difference and it's so hard to prove that a baseless accusation was the basis of a decision to deny employment that most people don't even consider suing.

I have enough frustration just dealing with people who flip out over any mention of the sex offender registry, making sure to point how important it is to LOOK at what they were convicted of. Yes, there are some heinous folks on there (saw one last week where the guy was GRINNING in his mugshot; age of victim NINE) who need to be monitored but not every single person on there is a horrific predator. People need to start learning to let their brains get ahead of their emotions.

[angelmaye]

I really feel like this is a case where race is playing a factor.

Would people be so forgiving if a black 19 year old man used an internet app to have sex with a fourteen year old girl? I don't think so.

[brittdreams]

I don't know that it's just about race though. Some of it is just common sense. Telling a 19 year old that he can't have a smartphone or computer basically means he can't go to college or even apply for most jobs. In addition to not being allowed in his own home and it's unlikely he'd be allowed to go to a public library or community center to use a computer. That's a long-lasting detrimental effect, which is a point I'd make regardless of the person's race. Setting someone up for failure is always a bad idea.

ETA: That said, I'd expect many white people to be totally okay with a 19 year old black guy doing jail time and being labeled a sex offender but that's because of the prevailing sentiment that all black people, and especially black men, are criminals-in-the-making, if they aren't already convicted criminals.

[gothic_hamlet]

You're really reaching here. Also we aren't talking about a theoretical "black man" who "used an app to have sex with a fourteen year old." We would be talking about a black teenager who hooked up with someone he thought was 17. You're painting an entirely different picture just to prove a point.