Governor Lincoln Chafee signed legislation on Tuesday that makes “sexting” by minors illegal in Rhode Island.

Minors who create and transmit sexually explicit images of themselves on their computers or cellphones can now be charged in Family Court with a “status” offense and, like the old law, other children or adults who possess or forward the “sexts” can be prosecuted under the state’s child pornography laws. Status offenses are age-related acts that would not be punishable if the offender were an adult, such as truancy.

“In today’s world, many people choose to communicate via the internet and cell phones,” said Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin in a press release, “However, without proper guidance, these types of communication technologies can be dangerous to a child’s physical and psychological well-being.”

The bill was a win for supporters of the legislation who claimed child pornography laws were too strict to punish minors for taking nude photos of themselves. But the law still makes it possible to prosecute minors who distribute sexts they receive to be punished under the strict laws.

Steven Brown, director of the Rhode Island American Civil Liberties Union, said that was his primary concern with the bill.

“We’re concerned about criminalizing this activity, which admittedly is not something kids ought to do, but it is widespread,” Brown said. “But the bill as it was ultimately passed does not prevent the possibility of kids being charged with child pornography.”

“All it has done is added an arsenal of weapons to police rather than provide protections to kids,” added Brown, “This bill unintentionally codifies the principle that kids could be charged with child pornography for engaging in this activity.”

He said his office attempted to add language to the bill that would prevent kids from being charged with child pornography for sexting, but that the attorney general’s office rejected that idea.

“It’s shocking that the state would even want to consider, or that any police department would even want to consider charging a minor for child pornography for this activity,” said Brown, “It’s something that parents should worry about their kids doing, but the idea that they could be charged with a felony and face lifetime registration as a sex offender is absolutely outrageous and unconscionable, but that’s what they wanted to do.”

At Wednesday’s School Committee meeting, School Committee Members Stephanie Culhane and Janice Ruggieri shied away from the merits of the legislation, but discussed the topic of sexting.

“We aren’t educating our kids properly for them to understand the ramifications of sending things out into the universe via electronic media,” said Ruggieri, “Because they don’t understand that when they put something into a text, or on Facebook or in an e-mail that it’s out there and it can be retrieved any time and that people are looking at it." 

She said that currently the school system brings in speakers to talk about cyber bullying, as well as other issues, and that maybe sexting should also be a topic.

“I think also that we as parents are not educating ourselves about the social media that goes beyond what we’re comfortable with or what we know,” said Culhane, “We’re being very naïve to think that our children won’t [sext].”

Both Culhane and Ruggieri agreed that it is up to parents to keep a close eye on what their children are doing on the internet and their cellphones.

“If they’re kids and we’re paying their bills, we have the right to look at things and review things,” Culhane said, “As a parent I feel that we have a right to infringe on their privacy.”