Sexting bills provide loophole to keep minors from registering as sex offenders

Minors convicted of sexting indecent images will no longer face a felony or have to register as a sex offender under a proposed law.

Both House and Senate committees have passed bills creating the "delinquent act of sexting," which would be prosecuted in youth court.

Rep. Nick Bain, D-Corinth, author of House Bill 1467, said it would keep allow a minor offender from having to register for the rest of his or her life as a sex offender. Current law makes the crime a felony, requiring registering as a sex offender.

Senate Bill 2803, authored by Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, is similar to the House version.

Youth Court judges asked for the bill, officials said.

Sen. Briggs Hopson, R-Vicksburg, said he has concerns about the hodgepodge of statutes dealing with minors.

"I have a grave concern with the statutes. They are all over the place," Hopson said. "If you are an 18-year-old dating a 15-year-old in high school, you can be charged with (statutory) rape."

The Senate bill also would make it a felony if the offender is three years older than the other minor involved.

Hopson and others said the problem is often with parents who are unhappy with a relationship in which their child demanding criminal charges being filed, even though the relationship was consensual.

The sexting bills say, "No minor shall knowingly possess or receive an indecent visual image of another minor that has been produced, transmitted, disseminated, distributed or displayed through use of a computer or electronic communication device."

The bill also makes it a felony "if the perpetrator caused an indecent visual image to be produced, transmitted, disseminated, distributed or displayed through the use of force, extortion, blackmail, coercion, threats, or intimidation."

Adults possessing or distributing inappropriate images of minors would still be prosecuted under felony laws.