In 2010, Connecticut implemented an offence prohibiting minors from engaging in sexting. This legislation was part of a range of reforms across the United States aiming to better tailor the criminal law’s response to youth sexting by distinguishing sexting from child abuse material. Drawing from submissions to the Connecticut General Assembly’s Sexting Bill, media reports and recent ‘sexting’ cases, this article adopts a feminist perspective and examines the justifications for and implications of this sexting statute. It argues that while aiming to create a distinction between child abuse material and sexting through a ‘lesser’ offence, these paternalistic reforms are informed by some of the same logics shaping child pornography/child abuse material law. Therefore, this statute is situated on a continuum of paternalistic legislation which utilises the constitutive expressive function of the criminal law to register anxieties about young people’s sexual and technological practices. As a result, this statute conflates victims and perpetrators of image based sexual abuses and fails to meet its deterrent and protective aims.

中文翻译：

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受害者、肇事者和家长作风：康涅狄格州以图像为导向的色情短信法律

2010 年，康涅狄格州实施了一项禁止未成年人参与色情短信的罪行。该立法是美国范围内一系列改革的一部分，旨在通过将色情短信与虐待儿童的材料区分开来，更好地调整刑法对青少年色情短信的反应。从提交给康涅狄格州大会的色情短信法案、媒体报道和最近的“色情短信”案件中，本文采用了女权主义的观点，并研究了这项色情短信法规的理由和影响。它认为，虽然旨在通过“较轻”的罪行在虐待儿童材料和色情短信之间做出区分，但这些家长式改革受到了塑造儿童色情/虐待儿童材料法的一些相同逻辑的启发。所以，该法规建立在家长式立法的连续统一体之上，该立法利用刑法的构成表达功能来记录对年轻人性行为和技术实践的担忧。结果，该法规将基于形象的性虐待的受害者和肇事者混为一谈，未能达到其威慑和保护目标。