It really is great news to kids in Florida, considering how they will not be severely punished if they receive any inappropriate photos from friends. But is lowering the punishment really going to help change the environment and stop the community from sending inappropriate photos to each other? The fundamental problem with this issue is not the way the government is dealing with the issue at hand. Sure, lowering the punishment could give those who were once charged with felony and sex offender a brighter a better future if their charges were dropped, but I don’t think this can get rid of the pressing issue, which is the fact that teenagers are sending each other nude photos. While it may be an act of reverse-psychology but lowering the punishment, I personally do not think this method necessarily works. Besides, if the teenagers were sending each other nude photos even when the punishment was severe, would they not do it anyways believing that they will be given three chances before officially being declared sex offenders?
I have seen similar case in a book called Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner addressing parents. In a kindergarten, parents were often late so in order to make the parents come earlier, the kindergarten started charging the parents- every time the parents are late, they will pay additional fees to the kindergarten. What the kindergarten teachers were hoping to reduce the amount of parents coming late turned out completely opposite. More parents were late and the parents simply did not feel guilty for being late because they all they had to do were give the extra charges. Relating back to the issue in Florida, giving them more lenient punishment would certainly ensure brighter future for the teens, I believe it just gives them extra incentive to send more nude photos- their mentality would actually be: if you’re given three chances before being charged as sex offender, doing it once would not hurt? Did the government really make the right choice? Would prioritizing the reputation of people necessarily help alter the safety of the environment?
I feel that this article wasn't really detailed in explaining the photos which were received. Is it photos which of naked photos of themselves or just random photos on the internet. It is a widely known fact that naked photos are something which merely takes a Google search to find. Being human beings that we are, we will be naturally curious about things that are unknown to us. According to the FBI , "Children, especially adolescents, are sometimes interested in and curious about sexuality and sexually explicit material. They may be moving away from the total control of parents and seeking to establish new relationships outside their family. Because they may be curious, children/adolescents sometimes use their on-line access to actively seek out such materials and individuals. " This is something which cannot be avoided and can only be solved in having parents monitor the internet usage of their children. I do see how lowering the punishment could have a negative effect but this seems to only be a one-sided argument. I don't really see the question being debated over here and I feel as if the real question related to this article would be, whether or not being lenient on punishments actually result in people actually not breaking the law? In relation with this article, I believe that students should be instead be receiving sex education at and guided by their teachers and/or parents about the opposite sex. In addition, students should have rules that pertain to their school and not one that involves the government; there is really no need to do so. With technology as it is today, just merely a misspelling of a keyword may lead to explicit sites for these children and just because of curiosity can these children be labeled as sex offenders? With the amount of computer viruses, trojans, and whatnot it can easily cause for children to receive a ton load of explicit content which is unsuited for their age. I personally believe that having such a record it can affect the child's future learning and could limit their college and ultimately their job opportunities. Therefore I agree with how the government in Florida is actually doing the right thing.
ReplyDeleteI think that the author presented a very fair argument in arguing that leniency doesn't necessary ensure improved behavior as the children might abuse the right that was supposed to act as a privilege. It is nice of the government to diminish the punishment and not label the children as sex offenders until they have committed the crime for a number of times but if the point is to diminish the crime and to encourage positive behavior, then this change isn't probably for the better. Children needs to know the consequences of their actions and to learn to shoulder the responsibly for it. I think that children should be educated as to the extent of their punishments and the necessary ways they can do to avoid getting into such serious trouble. When you're sending nude pictures of each other in middle school, you really don't know the consequences that can lead to and in order to diminish the behavior, they should be warned of the consequences.
ReplyDeleteYour thoughts on the government's inability to properly address the main issue (children sending nude photos) is sound, but I didn't see much AoK or WoK analysis. I think that there are some ethical issue in lowering the punishment for sending nude pictures. The government and parents have a moral obligation to ensure that the children grow up in an as safe environment as possible. In other words, they should prevent the sending of nude texts by discouraging it with severe consequences. Otherwise, they may be sacrificing a less corrupt environment for the sake of allowing the offenders to not be labeled as sex offenders. I think that lowering the punishment for sending inappropriate texts will only allow for an increase of the offense because it is easier to deal with the consequences than being labeled as a sex offender.
ReplyDeleteI think that an issue that could have been talked about was the ethical issues that might have been involved in this matter. I agree with what Mika has said in that there is an ethical issue in lowering the punishment for sending nude pictures. By lowering the punishment for sending nude pictures, it might send a message to the children that doing such a thing is not that bad which might start to lead them to do so. This is ethically wrong as doing such a thing is considered an unethical thing to do in society. Therefore, instead of lowering the punishment for sending these photos, the government should be making the punishment more severe in order to make sure that the children will know that doing such a thing is not good and that they will be severely punished if they do so.
ReplyDelete