Fear-Mongering

Kent Hanlin, an investigator with the Nebraska State Patrol, is passionate about his calling, which is apparently to put all the state's children in jail. He's going all over Nebraska speaking to school children with lines like these:

“We have girls who take topless pictures of themselves and e-mail it to their boyfriends, thinking it will help keep him (in the relationship),” he said.

“Boys do nasty things with video and send it to their girlfriends,” he said. “They may change (the images) to include a sex act.”

“I have seen where they hold the cell phone over the stall and shoot photos,” he said. “Yeah, they think it’s funny. But a picture like that could make you a registered sex offender.”

“People take pictures for yearbooks, then digitize them where it becomes a porn case and hate crime,” he said. “Another case was described (by the predator) as a ‘potential’ — one where the girl was in a cheerleading outfit and eating a lolly. The picture was later digitally enhanced.”

“If you have pictures of people partying, you love it as a cop. Why not give it over as evidence to arrest you?” he said. “And I can go to a chat room as an invisible visitor. I have a lot of tricks to follow the information.”

“This thing is all around. It’s in your back yard,” Hanlin said. “The predators go where you are at. They are at the malls and swimming pools. They can sit in a city park or in the yard by the daycare and start taking pictures, and you can’t stop them."

“These online predators say, ‘Trust me, I know what I’m doing.’ They are good, and they are fast,” he said. “By the end of the conversation, they know a girl’s chest size. More boys don’t tell if they are victims. Boys think they are macho and quiet.”

“A stranger is someone you don’t know,” he said. “They may give you their name and photo, but they’re still a stranger. It could be a bad guy.”

“You become a statistic, and you become a victim,” he said of Internet offenses.

OK, admittedly there are some very nasty people in this world, and kids should be taught to have common sense, but with all this fear-mongering we are turning our children into paranoid recluses.

Kids who are constantly warned of stranger danger come to see the world as a very threatening, dangerous place. Every interaction puts them at risk. For some young kids, they don't even understand the distinction between "stranger" and "strange" – so they think that anything out of their ordinary experience can be a threat.

And just how dangerous is the online environment for children? Anastasia Goodstein reports for PBS:

The biggest myth that has been perpetuated by well meaning law enforcement, Internet safety advocates, and the media is that the Internet is teeming with predators who are waiting for your child to post just enough information so they can find them and abduct them. In "Totally Wired," I relied on this stat: "Out of the 800,000 kids that are reported missing each year by the Justice Department, only 150 cases involve 'stereotypical kidnappings,' in which a child is taken by a stranger, held for ransom, or killed." Now there is new data from some of the lead researchers in the field that is putting online stranger-danger in even more perspective and clarifying who is really at risk.

Take the time to read Just the Facts About Online Youth Victimization where researchers present the facts and debunk myths. A little common sense and proper parenting, folks, and stop allowing television talking heads and hysterical law enforcement investigators to ruin the lives of your children.

The Gathering Storm

Reason Magazine has a chilling article on the steamrolling paranoia about sexting and child pornography prosecutions, and how society seems to be perfectly comfortable with ruining the lives of children in order to save them.

The harm here seems to be the possibility that somewhere, someone other than the intended recipient of these photos may be masturbating to them. That's an uncomfortable thought, sure. But it's difficult to see how that presents tangible harm to the minors in the photos, certainly not to the point where the minors themselves ought to be prosecuted. Anyone turned on by the photos in Skumanick's case could just as easily placate themselves with an old Sears catalogue—and with no resulting damage to the models who posed in it.

But the idea that an otherwise innocuous image can mutate into illegal child porn based on how it might be used by pedophiles is gaining currency. In 2006, Alabama photographer Jeff Pierson was indicted on federal child porn charges for a website he ran featuring aspiring teen models. None of the models were nude, nor were any depicted engaged in any sexual activity. All of the models' parents signed off on the photos. But federal prosecutors argued the models struck "illegally provocative," "lascivious," and "coy" poses that could entice pedophiles.

Writer Radley Balko echos much of what I have been writing about sexting for well over a year - that teens have always been sexually active, and the only difference now is the technology with which to document it all, and this hysteria from supposedly responsible adults is unwarranted, overreaching, and harmful. In spite of the obvious irrationality of prosecuting kids as child pornographers, the trend seems to be gathering momentum as society grapples with finding a solution to what it perceives to be an out-of-control situation.

The answer is understanding and education. Teen sexuality cannot be stopped, it's as inevitable as the dawn, and it's our Puritanical roots fostering our fear of all things sexual which create the widespread misconception that sexting should be treated as a crime.

The current case before the 3rd U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals involving three Pennsylvania girls being prosecuted by Wyoming County District Attorney George Skumanick, Jr., will likely have a great effect on whether this irrational criminalization of teen sexuality is a gathering storm, or a weakening front.

Wyoming County District Attorney George Skumanick, Jr. gave the girls a choice. The first option was to face felony child pornography charges, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The second was to attend a series of Skumanick-chosen classes, which according to the Pennsylvania ACLU included topics such as "what it means to be a girl in today's society" and "non-traditional societal and job roles." The girls would also be put on probation, subject to random drug tests, and would have to write essays explaining why appearing in photos while wearing their bras is wrong.

Skumanick would later tell a gathering of students and parents that he had the authority to prosecute girls photographed on the beach in bikinis, because the minors would be dressed "provocatively." He told the Wall Street Journal that by offering the girls the classes and probation instead of immediately hitting them with felony charges, "We thought we were being progressive."

This guy is a obviously a complete screwball, but he's a nutjob with the power to put your kids in jail for wearing a bikini on the beach. That should scare the Hell out of everybody.

Landmark Sexting Case Set for Friday

Story here.

The controversy began in October 2008 when Tunkhannock school officials confiscated five cell phones and discovered the boys who owned them had been trading digital images of scantily clad females, including Miller, Kelly and Doe.

The image of Miller and Kelly shows the girls standing together in their bras. The image of Doe shows her just getting out of the shower, topless, with a towel wrapped around her waist.

Skumanick’s attorney, Michael Donohue of Scranton, said the case before the Third Circuit Court pertains only to Doe. That’s because Skumanick determined after the court challenge was filed that he would not seek to file charges against Miller or Kelly. He based the decision on testimony at the hearing on the restraining order.

Donohue said Skumanick has pressed on with the case because he believes strongly that “sexting” is dangerous.

“He was motivated by his desire to protect children. The transmission of photos of naked children draws predators,” Donohue said. “The entire basis of the juvenile code is to save children from their own bad judgment.”

Wrong. The juvenile code was developed so that prosecutors could have the option of treating those under 18 differently than adults when crimes are committed. If a 16 year-old kid is involved in a bank robbery, the law provides some basis for mercy, allowing for the consideration of mitigating circumstances, such as parental abuse, poverty, etc. The code also allows for the teen to be tried as an adult if the crime and circumstances are serious enough.

Juvenile codes are not written to make criminals out of kids who do not commit crimes and merely exercise bad judgment. Teens make bad decisions all the time, it's called "growing up".

Hopefully the judge will throw out this frivolous and destructive case.

Sexting and the Age of Consent

Legislators in Pennsylvania are trying to put your kids in jail.

...the district attorney's office supports a bill proposed by state Rep. Seth Grove (R-Dover Township) that would make it a misdemeanor when teens age 13-to-17 send nude pictures of themselves online or over cell phone.

This is clearly at odds with the state's age of consent law which states:

Anyone between the ages of 13 and 16 can consent to have sex with anyone else who is no more than 4 years older.

So a 13 year old can have sex with a 17 year old as much as they want, but should one or the other take a nude photo, they'll end up before a district judge.

Dallastown School Superintendent Stewart Weinberg wants to keep the pressure on teens.

"Unless there's going to be some really strong discussions the kids have to be involved in, I'm not sure I'm for lessening the punishment," Weinberg said.

"I'm really concerned that if you lower that threshold without having those conversations, we'll have given away the hammer to make sure they realize how serious this is and there'll be more sexting."

I think that this is more of a generational issue. It's not that teens are having more sex than they were 30, 40 or 50 years ago, it's that there is now digital evidence that sex is happening. In the sixties, teens would go "parking" in isolated areas, fumbling around in the back seat, but when they kissed goodnight and went home, the only proof of sex was in the whispers at the lockers in school halls. Parents and authorities have always been able to deal with the knowledge of sex, but this new electronic imaging is a culture shock, and they don't know how to deal with it. Most teens think it's no big deal, and they are right.

Let it go.

Freakin' Idiot, Part Two

Now it's an Iowa State Representative who wants to make criminals out of teens who engage in sexting by making it a misdemeanor to send explicit electronic images.

State Rep. Deborah Berry, D-Waterloo, said Iowa laws are not in sync with the changes in technology and need to updated.

Berry has been pushing measures intended to stop Internet predators and adults from sending suggestive images to children and plans to bring those issues up again this session.

But she thinks a distinction should be made for teenagers who send explicit pictures. "They just do immature things sometimes," Berry said.

Yes, they just do immature things sometimes. Since when is immaturity a crime? Vote these idiots out of office, they are trying to ruin the lives of your children.

Teens who engage in sexting, which is an extension of normal sexual curiosity and development, should not be charged with any crimes. The law need to be changed, yes, but to exempt teens from child pornography laws. Adding a new law which makes this behavior a misdemeanor leaves the door wide open to charge any teen who transmits a nude photo via cell photo or computer a criminal, with a record that could last for years, if not for life.

Freakin' Idiot

Ohio State Representative Ron Maag wants to turn all minors into criminals.

House Bill 132 would make “the creation, exchange and possession of nude materials between minors by a telecommunications device” a first-degree misdemeanor. A felony charge would not be ruled out, Maag said in a press statement, but reserved for cases where the true intent is malicious.

Pennsylvania Sexting Case Reaches New Heights of Absurdity

Chambersburg Police Chief David Arnold is investigating about 30 high school students for sending nude photos with their cell phones, the the number could grow as the investigation proceeds.

"Currently, my understanding is what they could be charged with is felony child pornography. They would be on the Megan's list as a sex offender for the rest of their lives," said Eric Michael, Assistant Superintendent, Chambersburg Area School District.

Michael says he's now revamping the school district's Internet safety education program and extending it everyone.

"It's something that can't be solved by schools. It has to be solved by all of us," said Michael.

You can solve this problem right now by dropping the investigation and staying out of the private sex lives of teenagers. Nobody seems to care that these kids are actually having sex with each other, it's all about the images, which seem to have taken on some sort of power to sap the sensibility out of authorities.

This is about as absurd as the Supreme Court debating the legality of depictions of animal cruelty, when every night on television human beings are depicted as being raped and murdered under the most horrible of circumstances.

Do we really believe that the banning of images somehow makes the root of the problem magically disappear? In the case of sexting, does anyone truly believe that putting 30 high school students on a sex offender list will solve anything? It's truly stunning to hear a police chief and a school superintendent be so ready and willing to destroy the lives of perfectly normal teenagers in order to pursue some warped version of "justice".

These individuals have been given the task to protect and educate our children, not to ruin their lives.

14 Year-Olds Are the Most Sexually Dangerous Group in America

America is turning its children into sex offenders. The chart above, from the US Department of Justice, illustrates how we are criminalizing what was once a normal part of adolescence - experimenting with sex. Via Andrew Sullivan's blog comes this essay.

In our new bizarre world of sexual offender legislation each child is a victim and a perpetrator. As the victim, they get no help, of course. The victim status is the excuse needed so that the sledgehammer may be used on the other child. So each becomes a perpetrator. They will be arrested; they will be forced into court. They are likely to be convicted and sentenced. They may be placed into the various prisons for children that have been established—places where they will learn what unwilling, sexual attacks are really like. They will be tortured by therapists and eventually released—maybe. Even that is no longer guaranteed under our sex panic. Today, someone who has served their sentence can then be held in preventative detention for the rest of their natural life because the mob demands it. And the politicians give the mob what it wants.

As any reader of this blog knows, I've been railing against the criminalization of "sexting" and other youthful sexual indiscretions for some time now. Teens have been having sex since long before recorded history, but it is only now in the age of technology and information that there is hard evidence that such activity exists. Where once a heavy petting session in the back seat of an automobile yielded merely some boastful claims and the hushed passing of secrets, now there are cell-phone photos, text messages, and Internet postings, all flowing in the trough for overzealous prosecutors, Christianist lawmakers and panicked parents to feed off.

It takes so little for this happen to a child. A girl in school has oral sex with a boy in school. She becomes a sex offender for the rest of her life. Streaking a school event, as a practical joke, becomes a sex crime in the new America. Two kids “moon” a passerby and are incarcerated in jail as sex offenders, where they may well learn a lesson or two about rape. A teenager, who takes a sexy of photo of him, or herself, is paraded around the community as a “child pornographer” for the rest of his or her life. Two kids in the back seat of a car have fumbling sex. The law says one is an offender because the other is a “victim.” One week later, a birthday passes, and it is no longer a crime. One week’s difference and a life is ruined. In other cases an act that is legal on Monday is illegal on Tuesday because the older of the two turned one year older. That becomes enough to qualify him, or her, as an offender.

The magnitude of this perversion of natural and man-made laws cannot be underestimated. Recently The Economist ran an editorial on the harsh punishment of sex offenders.

Because so many offences require registration, the number of registered sex offenders in America has exploded. As of December last year, there were 674,000 of them, according to the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children. If they were all crammed into a single state, it would be more populous than Wyoming, Vermont or North Dakota. As a share of its population, America registers more than four times as many people as Britain, which is unusually harsh on sex offenders. America’s registers keep swelling, not least because in 17 states, registration is for life.

So the rounding up and persecution of sex offenders is the new red scare, the new witch hunt, the new crucible in which to burn our fears. I recently received a postcard telling me that a sex offender moved into the neighborhood, giving his name and address. I'm sure everyone in the area got one, too, and everyone is now living in a certain amount of fear. I do not know what this man did, but I do know that I have never in my life received a notice when a bank robber, murderer, embezzler or violent criminal ever moved into my neighborhood.

I cannot state enough that true child pornographers, rapists, kidnappers and other violent criminals who would take the innocence, health or property of any other human being deserves to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Human vermin like Phillip Garrido, if found to be guilty of the heinous crimes with which he is accused, deserve no mercy from the courts.

But to take a teenager who is only fumbling around and experimenting with sexuality, and turn that kid into a sex criminal, is doing precisely the opposite of what the law intends. Thankfully people are beginning to wake up to this bastardization of justice, but it's too late to help so many of the kids who ended up behind bars, kicked out of school, found themselves unable to secure meaningful work, or ended up living in the streets.

These kids are criminals, not necessarily because they violated the life, liberty or property of another person. They are criminals because the politicians defined them as criminals. These damned “family values” conservatives, and compassionate feminist Leftists, who banded together to “save the children,” turned America’s kids into sex offenders by fiat. And they feel good about it. They are satisfied by it and only wish more had been rounded up earlier. The Left wants everyone in therapy and under the perpetual care of the state, and the Right wants everyone in prison, or in fear of the law, and under the thumb of the police. And that is what is happening. [Classically Liberal]

16 Year Old Arrested for "Enticing" Sexting

In Johnstown, Colorado, it's apparently illegal for teens to flirt with each other.

A 16 year-old boy was arrested for asking a 14 year-old girl to send him a nude photo of herself. The girl's mother freaked out and called the police when she was told about the request.

“14-year-olds should not be viewed as sexual objects,” said (mom Kim) Torske. “This is serious. This is not a joke. This isn’t something fun you do. This is obscene and it is criminal. He should be punished and their should be consequences.”

The boy's phone was confiscated, and he was charged with enticement, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, harassment, and tampering with evidence because he cleared out his phone.

Thankfully, clearer heads prevailed and the D.A. has thrown out the case.

Amazingly, the girl, Jade Graber, is named in the article and has made a statement to the press.

Jade said she feels like crying every time she sees the boy at school. She recently took a vow of purity at her church.

“My parents raised me well,” said Jade. “I just feel with how bold he was with me, I’m not the first one he’s done this to.”

No, and it won't be the last, because humans are sexual beings and the urge to merge is very powerful. Teens reach puberty now at about 9 years of age, give or take, and our society is expecting these hormonally raging young people to bottle up their desires and remain chaste. It's like putting a nuclear bomb in a paper bag and expecting all to remain well.

I am reminded of this famous George Carlin routine about the Catholic confessional:

Mortal sin had to be a grievous offense, sufficient reflection and full consent of the will. Ya had'ta WANNA! In fact, WANNA was a sin all by itself. "Thou Shalt Not WANNA". ...It was a sin for you to wanna feel up Ellen. It was a sin for you to plan to feel up Ellen. It was a sin for you to figure out a place to feel up Ellen. It was a sin to take Ellen to the place to feel her up. It was a sin to try to feel her up and it was a sin to feel her up. There were six sins in one feel, man!

Jade has been taught by her parents that sex is a sin, but now she's being taught that it's also a crime. George Carlin would have to modify his routine today to include dusting Ellen's breasts for fingerprints, the confiscation of his cell phone, public humiliation in the newspapers and on the Internet, not to mention the potential registration as a sex criminal and the ruination of a once-promising life.

This is insanity, folks, to be arresting teens for sexual activity. Might as well sew up all the girls and castrate all the boys, that'll teach 'em for having impure thoughts.

Parents, please, talk to your kids about sex. Teach them how to be responsible, tell them that it's OK to say no, and if they will not agree to remain virginal, teach them about safe sex and contraception.

Calling in the police and the courts to solve matters of human sexuality is not the way to teach your kids about life.

Criminalizing Teen Sexting

David Walsh, founder and president of the National Institute on Media, calls for making criminals out of teens who engage in sexting.

I believe that there should be a consequence to get kids' attention, but teen stupidity merits a misdemeanor, not a life-ruining felony.

As a nation, we have to rise to the occasion if we want our children to fully understand what sex really means in a young person's life. Sexy videos on TV and racy sites on the Internet tell kids sex is no big deal. Some state officials are teaching them it's criminal in the extreme. If we want them to grow up to be happy, healthy adults we need to give them guidance and clear standards.

Again, the stupid argument is made that in order to reign in teen sexuality, it has to be made a crime with legal consequences. Mr. Walsh has the audacity to actually suggest that punishing teens for doing what they learn from society at large is the right thing to do.

No, the real answer here is to decriminalize teen sexting altogether. It shouldn't be a felony, a misdemeanor, or even a "parking ticket" offense. Nobody seems to want to admit that teens are having all sorts of sex. from oral to anal to group, often unprotected, but there is this social hysteria over a few nude photographs. Mr. Walsh wants teens to grow up into "happy, healthy adults", but fails to understand that puberty begins earlier than ever today, and that trying to button up the urge to merge for up to nearly 8 years in hormonal teens is not only idiotic, it's damaging.

Teen stupidity is not the problem here, it's adult stupidity.

The Weekend Newds 5/29/09

• According to Canadian journalist Sharlene Asam, the Internet has "sped up teens' sexual willingness and behavior."
• 7 out of 10 Spanish men say they have no problems getting naked.
• Facebook has reinstated graphic photos of a woman's mastectomy scars after initially calling the images "sexual and abusive."

  'I put these pictures out on Facebook to put a message out to women - check your breasts regularly and do not ever be ashamed of a mastectomy,' said Miss (Sharon) Adams, 45, yesterday. 'For Facebook to claim they were sexual and abusive was absurd. Facebook has online groups about sexual positions and some groups which are bordering on racist - but they ban this.'

• Schools across the country are imposing bans or restrictions on hugs due to fear of lawsuits over sexual harassment or improper touching.
• The rampant retouching of photographs in magazines which turns ordinary humans into something unknown in the natural world is causing a backlash.

  It now seems fresh, even exclamation-worthy, when a magazine presents an unvarnished image. Last month, for example, an issue of Life & Style took the unusual step of declaring that a cover photograph of Kim Kardashian was “100 percent unretouched,” as if it had done a great service to the cause of pseudo-celebrity journalism. And People, in its “100 Most Beautiful” issue this month, included images of 11 celebrities “wearing nothing but moisturizer.”

• A UK cable station is producing a "documentary" which "follows a Newcastle-based business building up to 'Naked Friday', a day when all of its workers will come to work nude."
• Noting that "there's never a bad reason for celebrating the human body", Las Vegas City Life explores all the opportunities for non-sexual clothes-free activities in the Nevada/Arizona area.
• Unbelievably, prison officials, prosecutors, judges and attorneys in Texas are gearing up for a big investigation over a photograph of a woman exposing her breast which was sent to convicted killer Robert Fratta.

  “It’s a class C misdemeanor to distribute obscene material to someone in a correctional facility,” District Attorney spokeswoman Donna Hawkins said. “Any violation of the law will be investigated, although no charges are likely to be filed before the conclusion of the trial.”

• A Malaysian editorial calls for a heavy penalty for "unhealthy activities" after a Danish production company taped a reality series on one of the islands off Johor where some participants were nude. Apparently an apology and the firing of the director were insufficient.
• Some Australian men streaked through Sydney wearing special "nude suits" to promote a cell phone company.
• Public interest law professor John Banzhaf has weighed in on the teen sexting issue.

  Anti-child-pornography laws were designed to protect children, including teens, from coercion and other forms of exploitations by adults, and adults involved in or encouraging sexting by teens may reasonable be punished, just as they would be if they participated or encouraged teens to play strip poker, says Banzhaf. But when a teen voluntarily sends racy pictures of herself to an equally-willing teen of about the same age, the basis for prosecution - coercion, exploitation, or other wrongful conduct by an adult - is no longer present, so punishing participating teens for exhibiting themselves to others in emails may be no more justified that punishing them for exhibiting themselves to each other when skinny dipping or playing strip poker in private among only other consenting teens.

• More news here on the "naturist walk" in Bracebridge, Ontario, Canada. Details are still sketchy, apparently FCN had nothing to do with it.
• Topless coffee shop owner Donald Crabtree says that the female employee accused of being outside the establishment with no top on actually had her breasts covered with her hands and arms. Charges are unlikely to be filed, but the Vassalboro town meeting on June 8 should be interesting, since a nudity ordinance will be considered.
• The Vassalboro coffee shop is cited as a reason for another town in Maine to enact preventative ordinances against adult businesses. Waterville planning board member Erik Thomas said "To me, it's better to be proactive about these things."
• The UK Advertising Standards Authority has approved the image of a bare-breasted woman in a brochure, saying, "we concluded the images were not so provocative as to present a risk to teenagers or be unsuitable for the target audience."
• Officials in Hamilton Township, New Jersey, are planning to auction off the site of the former Sunshine Park nudist resort because revenues are down. Residents would rather see the land cleaned up and left au naturel.
• You've heard of "Banned in Boston", but how about "Censored in Chicago"?

The Daily Newds 5/26/09

• Has Illinois gone too far in an attempt to clamp down on sexting?

  The ACLU and other organizations are going to have a field day with this legislation. The application to all is heavy on fail, but the biggest fail is this continued push to criminalize children. If we concede that sexting is a problem (and many would argue that it’s a media beet up and not a serious problem) how is turning teenagers into criminals and sending them to jail going to solve the problem? Vermont understands that the big stick approach shouldn’t be applied, it’s just a shame that most other US States don’t yet.

• Actress Moon Bloodgood doesn't understand why her brief topless scene was cut from "Terminator Salvation."

  "I just didn't feel as a woman that I should be apologetic about my sexuality," she said in an interview. "I thought the scene was appropriate. I thought it was beautiful. I have a very European feel about nudity. I just don't, as a woman, feel that I ever have to confine myself and be a certain way when sexuality is a part of me ... Why do we make such a big deal about it?"

• Noted nudist Cheri Alexander is waging a public relations war against Carolina Foothills Resort. She has posted here and here that she is no longer recommending the venue, but will explain why only to people she knows who contact her through email.
• Anne Hart reports that clothing-optional restaurants are booming.
• A North Carolina school psychologist is alleged to have taken inappropriate photos of a nude male teenager, but in his defense claims to be a practicing nudist.

  But that didn't explain away the photographs, which investigators found were inappropriate and crossed a line that gave them probable cause for criminal charges, Abell said. "The photographs the officers saw initiated the charges and, in their opinion and the opinion of the assistant district attorney here in Carteret County, they felt there is something more to it than just a photograph of a nude child."

• 84% of respondents to this poll feel that the new strip-search technology at airports is not worth the civil right infringements it creates.
• The simple solution of adding signs has cooled off the "nude bathing war" between Germans and Poles in the Baltic Sea resort of Usedom.
• Once again, public nudity is acceptable when done in the name of charity.
• Once again, with the start of swimming season, textiles are stressed out over the horrors of putting on a bathing suit.

  It's no wonder that so many of us dread putting on a bikini; they reveal every imaginable flaw, leave nothing to the imagination and expose all of the insecurities that we have about our bodies. Every year around this time, the tabloid magazines run a "best and worst" beach body story, with pictures of emaciated actresses with ribs poking out labeled the "best," and women with patches of cellulite or fleshy hips the "worst." To add insult to injury, they take a petite and perfectly toned woman that most of us would kill to look like and add some commentary about how brave she is to bare her "curves."

• A private health clinic in Prague is offering free silicone-enhanced breasts to female employees who renew their contracts.

  “I would rather have plastic surgery than a free car,” said Ms. Kalivodova, who opted for cosmetic breast surgery that would normally cost €2,600, or about $3,500, as well as liposuction on her thighs and stomach. These were physical enhancements, she said, that she could not afford on her €1,000 a month salary. “I feel better when I look in the mirror,” she added. “We were always taught that if a nurse is nice, intelligent, loves her work and looks attractive, then patients will recover faster.

• An Ohio judge has ordered David Weber out of the nudist resort Paradise Gardens near Cincinnati.

  "He just decided one day he liked it and didn't want to leave, so he took the wheels off his RV and built a little porch around it," Paradise Gardens' attorney, Joseph Krause, said. "The problem with that is that is not how these campgrounds work. No one's allowed to live there year-round. That's Ohio law." In a hearing last week, Common Pleas Judge William Mallory ordered Weber to get out - and take his trailer with him - no later than the end of June.

• Wingnut commentator Debra J. Saunders calls the one million dollar wrongful death settlement in the case of Berkeley's Naked Guy a "jackpot for mom."
• "Naked Words - The Body Love Project" is verbal nudism, a series of 15 monologues by women who attempt to come to terms with their own physical appearances.
• "Dressed to Kill" is a book by doctors Sydney Singer and Soma Grismaijer, claiming that women who wear bras 24 hours per day have a 3 out of 4 chance of developing breast cancer.
• A man found nude in a woman's bathroom claims to be a "closet nudist."

The Big Bad Wolf

Dr. Peter Cumming, associate professor at York University and coordinator of the Children's Studies Program there, says that the Internet and cell phone cameras are "the big bad wolf" in society. that the uproar over sexting is today's version of the public outrage expressed over Elvis Presley shaking his pelvis on stage in the 1950s, and that making criminals out of teens for expressing natural curiosity over their own sexuality defies common sense.

"It would be very unlikely to see dozens of news stories announcing that some children we caught playing spin-the-bottle, or doctor, or strip poker," he says. "Yet many of the cases brought forward have been on the same level of innocence and experience as those activities. "In other words, kids are playing spin-the-bottle online."

Cumming goes on to argue that a distinction has to be made between nudity and child porn, a challenge which also faces nudism and naturism today if the lifestyle is to continue to exist as being family-friendly.

Maybe it Wasn't the Nude Photo That Killed Jessie Logan

In a stunning news story, it has been revealed that the parents of Ohio teen Jessie Logan, who committed suicide last summer, never even brought up the subject of a nude photo during an investigation of their daughter's death.

Logan's parents have been waging war against lawmakers, educators and students, alleging that harassment and inaction over a nude photo Jessie took of herself led directly to the suicide, and have subsequently filed a lawsuit seeking damages from just about everybody involved. They even appeared alongside Ohio lawmakers who want to enact laws criminalizing teen sexting so that future suicides can be prevented.

It turns out that the family told investigators that Jessie was distraught over the suicide of a classmate, had recently broken up with her boyfriend, and, according to one uncle, might have been pregnant. Reportedly, the parents fought for months against releasing a blood sample for a pregnancy test, which they said was negative. But in the days following the girl's death, nobody in the family even mentioned the nude photo to investigators.

The whole affair is tragic -the loss of a young life, the pain felt by family and friends, and the unsolved questions which always remain after such a senseless death will continue to haunt all those close to Jessie for as long as they live.

It's human nature for people to seek answers for events which shatter their lives, but it is the responsibility of police, lawmakers, counselors, media types and other professionals to remain calm and rational in the face of runaway emotion. In the case of Jessie Logan, it appears that everyone took the nude photo story and ran with it, without even examining all the other factors which likely drove the teen to her sad decision. The nude photo made for sexier television, more sensational political fodder, and contained the degree of tawdriness necessary to make this an international story.

Suicide is the third leading cause of death for those aged 15 to 24. It's clear that more preventative measures are needed, that parents, teachers and students need to be made more aware of the warning signs and how to deal with them before it's too late. With Jessie Logan, we may never know if she was giving off any warnings, and if those warnings were ignored or unrecognized, because the nude photo took center stage and captured all the attention.

Jessie's parents claim that it was "shock" which blocked out the nude photo in their minds when initially speaking to investigators, yet this "shock" didn't prevent them from coming up with several other reasons for the suicide.

Let's hope that this lawsuit is thrown out, that the Ohio law fails to pass, and all these people get back to trying to live their lives as best they can. I know what it's like to live with unspeakable tragedy, the loss and pain never completely leave, but life always goes on somehow, and time helps to smooth the road.

Society's tug-of-war over nudity, with Puritanical revulsion on one side and endless fascination on the other, is the root cause of making this story so sensational. Until we come to grips with the fact that we all have bodies, that we are essentially all the same underneath our clothes, we will continue to see this sort of irrational, unfounded and dangerous gut reaction to expressions of teen sexuality from the keepers of a repressed society.

The Weekend Newds 5/23/09

• 89 year-old Jo Wallace remembers when fundraising was done in formal wear, but now she has posed nude for a calendar to raise money for a local women's shelter.
• Members of the Dunscar Golf Club in the UK raised £10,000 for breast cancer by selling a nude calendar.
• The nude body of a man has been found floating in the waters east of Wreck Beach in British Columbia, Canada.
• James Martin explores places to get naked in Europe.
• Nick Sortal of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel got naked for a yoga class. Instructor Ray Whetstone said, "If you can stand in front of a mirror naked 15 minutes a day and deal with the issues, you're going to be a very healthy person."
• Illinois has become the latest state to make "sexting" a crime.
• I'm not so sure I understand this story. A size 12 Cambridge student is in the finals of a modeling competition because "Studies have shown that 63 per cent of girls would rather be a topless model or lap dancer than a doctor, lawyer or teacher...I want to use this opportunity to show young girls that education is important, as someone that has prioritised my own education and worked really hard to get into Cambridge and get my degree." So...she's trying to put a stop to female objectification by posing in her bikini?
• Tom Lubbock critiques the great painting "Reclining Nude" by Jean-Francois Millet.
• A 12-year old boy in Dallas could face obscenity charges for having a nude photo on his cell phone.

  "It makes me uncomfortable to think about that," said Scott Mauro, a school counselor. "I mean, these are just little kids. I think it's just a cry for attention, just looking to give them attention."

• Time Out New York promotes the World Naked Bike Ride event through Central Park on June 20.
• I'm not so sure that this letter to Annie's Mailbox is legit.

  I looked around and saw a man in a hot tub. I assumed this was the guy, so I kept watching. Five minutes later, he got out of the hot tub and really was naked. I instantly got a headache and my eyes burned. I want to do something to prevent children from seeing him. I know he was in his own backyard, but you could see him clearly from the field. Would that count as public nudity? Do you think I should report him? — Scarred for Life

• You want to run around naked in public? Apparently all you have to do first is declare you are doing it for charity. 21 year-old Roy McGuinness was cheered on by family, friends and spectators has he rode "The Naked Bus" in Ireland to raise money for the MS Society.
• Model Amy Houlton, wearing only the paint of an artist's design, walked through downtown Toronto to promote the Canadian Bodypainting Championships.

  Amy poses next to the main doors, below huge images of CBC’s best-known presenters. Peter Mansbridge’s stern, 20-foot tall face seems to disapprove. Inside, an encounter with a school group elicits a mixed reaction. One girl dismisses it as “disgusting,” but some of the teenage boys can’t believe their luck: “Oh my God, was she naked?!”

• A poster of a toddler pretending to breastfeed her doll is eliciting both scorn and praise at a hospital in Manchester, England.
• 25 actors had to take off their clothes for 25 days during the filming of "The Girl Who Lived", the story of a young woman who survived the Auschwitz death camp during World War II.

  The volunteer cast and crew worked from 4pm to 4am to avoid work and study commitments and spent months taking part in trust exercises and workshops so the nude scenes could be filmed with ease.

• Former Albion mayor Michael Hadick, when asked about nude photos of him posted on a website, declared, "I am naked every day. It isn't a big deal."
• Guy Adams, commentator for The Independent, cannot understand America's strange morality laws.
• A Munich art exhibit celebrates 150 years of body images in photography.
• A Denver prosecutor says that a woman flashing her breasts in public is not free speech as protected by the First Amendment.

The Daily Newds 5/13/09

• Alanis Morisette will reportedly do a nude scene during the next season of "Weeds". Morisette once said, "I'm a leave-the-bathroom-door-open nudist, which is sometimes disconcerting for my friends."
• A 73 year-old sex offender was found hiding under an assumed name at an Arizona nudist venue. He was using an RV with tags registered to the previous owners.
• With all the worry about "stranger danger", it's illuminating to discover that approx. 8000 children were injured by falling televisions in 2007.
• A new book argues makes the case that running in bare feet "may be the kindest thing you every do for your body."
• I really feel terrible for the family of the Ohio girl who committed suicide because she was bullied by her peers over a nude photo she took of herself, but suing the school, the town and some of the students is compounding the tragedy unnecessarily.
• The Texas Senate voted to repeal a $5 per person "admission fee" to strip clubs, which was declared to be unconstitutional, and agreed to replace it with a "new tax" on sexually oriented businesses. And the difference is...?
• Are curvy young women rejecting the "half-starved look" which has been the body ideal for a generation?

  ... the impossibly bouncy paradigm of birdlike frame supporting implausibly big breasts that originated with porn stars — and Barbie — may be on the way out, at least among teenagers. Mind you, what women tell market researchers doesn’t always reflect what they really think. Do women, especially young women, even always understand the fraught cross-currents of reaction that their own — and other women’s — bodies elicit?

• The first streaker has struck Citi Field.
• An ad for Air New Zealand shows pilots and flight attendants wearing nothing but body paint.
• A sexting case in Palm Beach County has resulted in search warrants to the homes of five teens, as well as seizures of cell phones and computers. No charges have yet been filed.
• Vanessa Hudgens, who took a nude photo of herself a couple of years back, is open to doing nude scenes in movies.
• Sexploitation hits a new low in a Latin American show called "Without Breasts There is no Paradise."
• All nudists and naturists laugh at the annual "How to Get in Bikini Shape" article.

The Daily Newds 5/12/09

• In the UK, the town of Huddersfield is going all out to encourage breastfeeding.
• Paula Cooey, a professor of religion at Macalester College, wonders if embattled beauty queen Carrie Prejean is God's prophet or a porn star.

  We as a nation promote biologically reductionistic, soft-porn views of human bodies and human sexuality, views that do real violence to real people. Don’t get me wrong; my objection is not to naked bodies and eroticism, but to shrouding sexual titillation and drooling voyeurism with the patina of beauty and virtue, a phenomenon hardly restricted to the religious right alone. We don’t have to be right-wing evangelicals to be confused about our own flesh; bought, marketed, and consumed through various print and electronic media. Indeed, the Carrie Prejeans and Jerry Falwells Jr. of the world are just more transparent.

• Two Ohio teens were sentenced yesterday over nude photos on their cell phones.

  Prior to sentencing, defense attorney Charlie Rittgers told Powell the boy was never in trouble before and was “remorseful” for his actions. “He is scared to death at being here,” Rittgers told the judge. “He did not realize that what seemed to be an innocent act on his part could have ramifications.”

• Some people expect Facebook to cave in to protesters who want all groups devoted to Holocaust denial to be banned. The powers-that-be at Facebook put themselves in this predicament when they banned photos of mothers breastfeeding their children. Free speech is messy. You can't only demand the free speech you want without accepting the free speech of others. Banning the breast, now banning certain political speech, and what will be the next topic to be deemed offensive? Nudism? As abhorrent as the Holocaust deniers are, they cannot be denied their First Amendment rights.
• The rash of recent nude photos of celebrities is likely part of a larger trend.

  "The commonsense response is that anyone who thinks popular culture is not helping to shape the social script for teens just isn't paying attention," said Bill Albert, a spokesman for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. "It's not the only thing, of course, but what's happening in celebrity culture and what's happening amongst their peers has a great influence on teens."

• The media need to stop sexing up all body parts - now "love handles" are seen to have a "damaging effect" on a person's love life.
• AANR's publicity campaign for a world record skinny-dip has reached at least one news outlet.
• Go for it! Shirley Jones's husband thinks it would be "sensational" if the 75 year-old beauty would pose nude for Playboy.
• If you are unemployed, Central Casting in New York is looking for nude models.
• Lily Allen, forced to change lyrics to one of her songs by the BBC, told her audience that she "might just go naked. In fact, I think everyone coming to watch should go naked. I want to see the whole crowd naked." I think she really means it.

The Weekend Newds 5/8/09

• Since Spencer Tunick's Irish installation will not be exhibited in that country, the work will be put on a web site beginning on June 8 and lasting four months.
• A secluded clothes-free beach in California is being threatened by illicit sexual activity solicited on Craigslist.
• "When Breastfeeders Attack" is must reading.
• A California music teacher will not be charged for allegedly possessing child porn on his work computer. Although police have provided no details, my hunch is that the images were of a naturist variety.
• A former prosecutor called the felony conviction of an Ohio man "a misuse of the computer hacking law." Richard Wolf was fired from his position at a wastewater treatment plant after a nude self-portrait was discovered on his computer, leading to an investigation which found he uploaded the images to the Adult Friend Finder in order to connect with women. Had he been buying crap on eBay, he would have probably received a slap on the wrist, but once human sexuality enters the mix, it becomes a felony. Sure the guy was wrong and stupid to use a work computer, but if being a lonely guy looking for sex is a crime, then they had better start rounding up half the country.
• An Australian woman is entering a painting of a nude man in a local art show in order to challenge a new "sensitive art policy."

  “Let’s see what they do with it,” she said of her nude entry.“If they knock that back they don’t even know what art is.”

• Tennessee State Attorney General Bob Cooper warned that a proposed "saggy pants" bill could be unconstitutional.
• 13000 people signed an online protest, forcing a British department store to stop charging customers more for oversized bras.

  The campaign on Facebook was started by Beckie Williams, 26, who wears a 30G bra, after Marks and Spencer failed to respond to her complaints about the STG2 ($A4) extra charge on bras bigger than a DD cup. The group, Busts 4 Justice, condemned the policy as "criminally unfair" and urged "busty ladies" to "join forces to end this blatant discrimination".

• New Hampshire has become the latest state calling for censorship on Craigslist.
• The Washington Post covers the teen sexting issue.

  Sexters are often "the good kids," police said, with strong grades, involved parents and no criminal history. Many send photos without grasping that they could be widely circulated or posted on the Internet in view of strangers, predators and potential colleges and employers.

• The discovery of a cache of nude photos in a Texas city hall will likely not lead to any charges against the former employee. When contacted about the self portraits the man reportedly took the news in "good humor."
• Time Out New York has a nice little article about nude artists' models, with both clothed and unclothed photographs.
• Vietnamese "nudist" body painters are pursuing their art with passion, but still face great prejudice in a country where the line between art and photography is very thin.
• A German coastal town is fighting swinger sex on a secluded nude beach.
• The AANR Word Record Skinny-Dip on July 11 is very poorly organized. Just go to this link and try getting any meaningful information. UPDATE: If you have a Facebook account, there is a group set up here.
• An article on modesty touches upon the issue of nudity in the home.
• An unemployed English woman says her ideal job would be as a "topless motivational speaker."
• Apple is rejecting a newspaper app for the iPhone due to the fact that topless "Page Three" women are included.
• The nominees for the 1st Annual Naked News Awards have been announced.
• A nude calendar with strategically placed fruit over some body parts is being planned to boost tourism in Australia.

The Daily Newds 5/5/09

• The Martin Schreiber nude photographs of Madonna are taking England by storm.
• Once again, a nude calendar has raised thousands of dollars for charity.
• Here's more on British Naturism's Nudefest event.

  Dr Elletson, a direct descendant of Geoffrey the Crossbowman – the original Lord of the Manor of Preesall-with-Hackensall – is said to be very enthusiastic about the area's first naturist weekend and is keen to include the local community in the provision of services and entertainment.

• A couple of Congressional Democrats have jumped on the prude bandwagon and are sponsoring a bill to ban "indecent" advertising on television during prime time viewing hours. Erectile dysfunction ads are specifically targeted. It's somewhat ironic that one of the chief spokespersons for ED drugs was former Senator Bob Dole.
• The "Models as Muse" exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art celebrates beautiful women and how ideals have evolved. The topless bathing suit is included.
• Here's a more detailed local story on the grandmother busted for taking a nude photo of her granddaughter.
• Outside Magazine explores places to get naked in the great outdoors.
• A columnist declares that sexting is this generation's streaking or skinny-dipping. I don't think that's quite accurate because streaking and skinny-dipping are still happening, and sexting is not quite as innocent. As I've stated before, sexting is an electronic extension of teen sexuality. Kids are out there having real physical sex - oral, anal, and vaginal - and sexting is merely evidence that this activity is occurring. The issue is whether or not teens trading nude photos of themselves constitutes child pornography. My stand is that is is not child pornography, that it is freedom of expression, and adults need to come to terms with the fact that criminalizing the sexuality of children is an abomination.
• A city councilman attempted to pass an ordinance prohibiting nudity in the Lake Edun Foundation's four nights of one-act plays.

  While there is a city ordinance and state law prohibiting publicly exposing a sex organ with “intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of the offender or another,” local prosecutors said the plays didn’t violate those laws.

The Daily Newds 4/13/09

• Organizer of the Glade festival in the UK are seeking legal advice over the request of 30 Germans who want to attend the event in the nude.


• A man sneaked into a Ball State University life drawing class and snapped a photo of a nude model, and then ran away.


• An article on the Bird Island nudist controversy approaches the subject in a fair and neutral manner, concluding that it's all basically a "non-issue" in the first place.


• At Lolo Hot Springs in Montana, it's clothing optional after 9 PM.


• The Singapore woman charged with indecent exposure for her nude public walk with a Swedish friend is a member of Mensa and is persuing a PhD in infection biology at Karolinska Institute in Sweden.


• The Bare Buns 5K run is scheduled for 1 PM on Saturday, April 18, at Star Ranch in Texas.


• "Calendar Girls" has opened in London's West End, prompting critic Michael Coveney to examine the evolution of nudity on stage.


• Nudism seems awfully tame next to some social phenomenons, like fetish parties.


• Sexting Roundup: Ohio introduced a bill to make criminals out of teenagers, while Vermont indicated that it would totally decriminalize consensual exchanges of nude photos between two people 13 to 18 years old. Warner Todd Huston of the American Daily Review says that rushing to enact new anti-sexting laws in the wake of the tragic suicide of Ohio teen Jessica Logan is bad legislation.


• I think that child beauty pageants are a bit creepy, but one legislator wants the government to oversee the events, even to the point of regulating "excessive makeup".


• Padma Lakshmi, Chelsea Handler Eliza Dushku, Lynn Collins and Sharon Leal have all posed for Allure's nude issue.
  

  ALLURE: Are you comfortable with nudity?
  ELIZA DUSHKU: "I grew up with three brothers, and I was never shy about covering up. It got to the point where my mom was like, 'OK, honey, it's time to put some clothes on now.'"



• Joe Shuster, one of the creators of "Superman", drew underground comics in the fifties which contained "naked women with whips, brutish men brandishing red-hot pokers, exotic torture and politically incorrect spankings."


• The New York Times studies the legal challenges facing communities that want to outlaw saggy pants in public.


• A British poll finds three out of four adults are willing to pose nude for 6500 pounds. Everybody has a price.


• This article is a bit satirical on the subject of topfreedom, but the point is serious.
  

  If we took away the taboo of the bare breast, it might allow us to unclench just enough that we realize that it isn’t going to kill anyone, or turn our children into depraved maniacs. Then maybe we can start focusing on things that are really critical to mankind’s enlightenment.



• Finally, nudity comes to daytime TV in Great Britain as Channel 4 is broadcasting life drawing classes featuring nude models so people can sketch from home.
  

  John Whittingdale, the Tory chairman of the Commons culture select committee, said that, in principle, he would not object to nude life drawing classes before 9pm if they were in an “educational context” and avoided “gratuitous titillation”.