Teen Sexting Ring Busted in Milton, VT … Don’t These Teens Understand This is Child Porn, the State Doesn’t?

TEENS GET MULLIGAN FOR SEXTING AND CHILD PORN IN VT …

Twenty two high school students in Milton, VT find themselves in big trouble as the police have busted a high school sexting ring.  The students are between the age of 14 and 17 and used school issued laptops to view pics  of nude and partially nude adolescent girls. GOOD GRIEF. When will teens ever learn that actions have consequences? Who thinks up such an elaborate scheme for sexting and disseminating porn. Then again, who is so stupid to go along with it?

You know why teens don’t think their actions have consequences? Ask the enablers in the liberal, socialist Republic of Vermont  that finds it more important to pass gay marriage than they do to hand out punishment and charges for what has to be considered child pornography. Why would Vermont police waste their time, money and energy if they were not going to press charges?

The Milton Police Department said in a statement Wednesday that after investigating the sexting ring for six months, the case was now closed and that none of the juveniles would face criminal charges.

“We wanted to make it more of an educational experience than … a punitive experience,” said Detective Cpl. Paul Locke. “We don’t want a mistake they made at 14 to haunt them their entire life.”

Does this really help teens or just give them the feeling that they are bullet-proof? How do you stop teens from sexting and disseminating child porn if all they know they will face is a diversion program? being branded a sex offender for the rest of one’s life might be extreme; however, a touchy-feely, “we promise not to do it again” program seems a bit light. Then again, it is Vermont.

Locke said that technically, these indecent images of underage girls “could be considered child pornography,” although in this case they weren’t because the pictures were not obtained by adults over 18.

Instead of facing criminal charges, the students, who all fessed up to the acts, have been referred to the Milton Reparative Board, a community board that will hold them accountable by requiring community service, counseling and education.

The decision was made in compliance with a 2009 Vermont law in which minors who are caught “sexting” for the first time can complete a diversion problem to avoid prosecution under the state’s child pornography laws.