Abstract
Technological advancements always precipitate social anxiety and new modes of legal regulation. The ubiquity of cellular phones and Internet access has brought about myriad social and political changes including significant increases in the ability to express and act on sexual interests. Sexting, i.e., the production and dissemination of sexually explicit images by children and young adults, has become a vexing issue for parents and school administrators, legislatures and courts. Three legal cases from the United States illustrate the de-constitutive possibilities of such judicial discourse. These cases illuminate the paradoxes and forms of forgetting that are required to maintain a particular conception of childhood. This analysis shows how stereotypes about gender, sexual agency, and sexual orientation are marshaled in the service of beliefs about children’s sexual innocence.
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Notes
Miller v. Skumanick 605 F. Supp. 2d 634.
Ibid.
State of Wisconsin v. Stancl, DA Case No.: 2008WK010779.
U.S. v. Broxmeyer 708 F.3d 132 (2013). Cert denied by the U.S. Supreme Court at 133 S. Ct. 2786 (2013).
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Cases
Miller v. Skumanick 605 F. Supp. 2d 634 (2009).
New York v. Ferber 458 U.S. 747 (1982).
State of Wisconsin v. Stancl DA Case No.: 2008WK010779.
U.S. v. Broxmeyer 708 F.3d 132 (2013).
Acknowledgments
Ann Burlein, Rosalind Petchesky, Arturo Sanchez Garcia, and two anonymous reviewers deserve thanks for their insightful comments on this paper. I am also most grateful to have been hosted as a visiting scholar by Peter Hegarty and the School of Psychology at the University of Surrey while finalizing the Project.
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Rollins, J. Sexting Cyberchildren: Gender, Sexuality, and Childhood in Social Media and Law. Sexuality & Culture 19, 57–71 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-014-9243-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-014-9243-4