The NSW government has overhauled the laws regarding sexting, with the changes coming into effect today.
Under the new laws, teenagers under the age of 18 who take, share or keep nude photographs of themselves or others won’t be convicted of possessing child pornography, especially if the nudes were sent or received consensually.
Previously, teens who engaged in sexting could be charged with possessing child pornography. But thanks to these changes, the government believes that “normal sexual development and experimentation among teenagers” is no longer at risk of becoming criminalised.
The new laws also provide for a ‘similar age’ defence for consensual sex, where both teenagers are at least 14 years old and the age gap between them is no larger than two years.
These changes have been introduced following the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Attorney-General Mark Speakman told the ABC that the changes were “putting the safety of children front and centre and fixing shortcomings in the law” highlighted by the royal commission.
Consensual sexting has been a normal part of adolescence since mobile phones were invented, and these changes do a good job of recognising that.
Teenagers who send photos of themselves should never have been at risk of facing charges of child pornography possession, but the law is often slow to adapt to changes in technology and society.
This is still a rule tho.
Other changes that have been implemented include the criminalisation of grooming the parent or carer of a child for sexual purposes, and knowing an adult working in an organisation poses a risk of abusing a child and failing to reduce or remove the risk.
In addition, historical child abuse offences will be sentenced based on today’s sentencing guidelines, rather than the guidelines in effect at the time of the offence, and courts will no longer be able to consider an offender’s good character a mitigating factor when sentencing in historical child sex offences.
That means that no matter how nice an offender may seem, no matter how many hours they’ve volunteered at church bake sales or school fetes, the judge will not be able to consider that when deciding on a sentence. Considering assaulting a child proves you’re actually not a good person, these new laws make sense.