Sexting as Child Pornography

Prosecution of young people under child pornography offences has increasingly been the subject of public, media and academic debate. This is interesting, given that there are many other possible civil and criminal law responses, as well as non-legal responses, to sexting by young people. In civil law it is possible to bring an action for breach of privacy, breach of confidence, breach of copyright, defamation, nuisance, sexual harassment and so on. Such civil law actions are available where there is non-consensual distribution or reception of an image, and require that the individual concerned brings a complaint. As such, they will not be relevant where young people consensually take and share images. Also given that these actions are ‘private law’ they do not have the public censuring function of criminal law and may not excite the public imagination in the way that criminal prosecutions do. There are also a range of existing criminal law offences that may apply to sexting by young people, such as sexual offences, offences against indecency, stalking and harassment.