Rep. Rebimbas wants to change laws regarding “sexting”

Rep. Rebimbas and several other members of the judiciary committee, including Reps. Labriola and O’Neill, are working to change current state law regarding teens and sexting.  Sexting refers to text messages of sexually explicit content sent or received via cell phone and is currently a felony for anyone under the age of 18.  Rep. Rebimbas sees a distinction between teens in a relationship that send such images between themselves and someone sending images to others without consent. Under current state law sexting  is prosecuted as child pornography and  those convicted will have to register as sex offenders, a law Rep. Rebimbas thinks is too harsh.  “Teens in a relationship that send explicit messages to each other is different from predators targeting young children,” Rep. Rebimbas said. “Teens sometimes make poor decisions but we need to educate our teens that under no circumstances should they be sending these photos to one another consenually or not because they will get in the wrong hands and that can affect them negatively for the rest of their lives.”

Watch a video report from WTNH NewsChannel 8 here.

Read the Hartford Courant story here.