CARNAL NATION

Vermont is starting to look like the place to go if you want to get away from the crazy. First, its legislature passed gay marriage, right over the objections of the governor. Now, Vermonters seem to be behaving sensibly about the moral panic around "sexting." The Vermont Senate has passed legislation that would specifically exempt from child pornography charges teens who send pictures of themselves via cell phone. Of course, it's a sign that crazy is more popular than it should be if we even need to put that into law, but apparently some overenthusiastic prosecutors need common sense spelled out for them.

Right now, there are prosecutions pending in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Vermont against teens who used cell phones to send pictures of themselves. Vermont is the first to take legislative action to address the issue, which has caused astonishment and outrage among parents and other adults who are concerned that teens will wind up on sex offender registries for the rest of their lives. The bill, if passed by the House and approved by the Governor, would exempt teens from 13 to 18 from prosecution, "so long as the offending images were of the sender and were sent and received voluntarily."

State Senator Richard Sears, commenting on the law to the Associated Press, said "We felt that [sexting is] poor behavior and it’s not something we want to give our OK to. But at the same time, do we want a kid in jail? Do we want them tagged as a sex offender for the rest of their lives? And the answer is no."