Parental Paranoia 1

The new pernicious problematic peril to the purity of the pubescent puerile from the Puritanical, who never ever played “spin the bottle” when they were young:

Members of the Virginia State Crime Commission refused Tuesday to recommend legislation concerning sexting, but the issue is likely to come before lawmakers next month.

Currently, it’s up to commonwealth’s attorneys to charge teens and young adults who send sexually explicit pictures or videos through text messages or e-mails with possessing or transmitting child pornography. Several have done so, and some lawmakers say there should be laws to ensure the issue is dealt with uniformly across the state.

But others, like Del. David Albo, R-Fairfax, said taking the discretion away from the state’s 120 elected prosecutors could result in a teen being punished for a stupid mistake while allowing a serious predator to receive a mere slap on the wrist. Albo called possible legislation “a total minefield.”

Meanwhile, Conor Friedersdorf links to a chilling story of dictatorial prosecutorial vindictiveness and stupidity, which says it so I don’t have to:

Interpolation, 250 Miles Later: The point of this is that some kid who makes a mistake, or maybe it’s not a mistake but he or she’s under age (the age limits are, after all, generalizations) shouldn’t be treated like a 45-year-old who snatches a six-year-old off the street, but that is where we are headed.

Many years ago, when I was a young ‘un, Playboy had a classic cartoon.

The boy, come to pick up his date–dating is what happened before “hooking up”–was sitting on the couch being interrogated by the father. The kid was saying (you could almost hear the squeak in his voice), “Well, Mr. Brown, I’m sure that my intentions are the same as yours were when you were dating Mrs. Brown.”

Behind the couch, Mr. Brown is reaching for his shotgun.

There’s a whole bunch of Mr. Browns out there.