According to the state of Ohio, the answer is now apparently yes. Remember my post about sex offenders and Oprah? I discussed some of the local and state laws where I live in regards to registered sex offenders. Now comes the case of a 15-year-old girl in Licking Valley, Ohio, which is in a county adjacent to my own, and is garnering national attention. I first read about the story on Salon's women's issues blog Broadsheet (get it?), and they heard about the story from ABC.
What happened, apparently, is that the girl took naked pictures of herself and sent them to a bunch of people at her high school. Stupid, certainly. Probably deserving of some sort of punishment from some authority, yes. But does it make the girl a sex offender? Ohio law seems to says it does. The girl has been charged with "illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material" and "possession of criminal tools." (i.e. her cell phone) If she is convicted, she could be kept in juvenile detention until she's 21 and be forced to register as a sex offender (because she was caught distributing child pornography) for the next 20 years. Not only that, but charges may also be filed against the people she sent the photos to, since they were in possession of child pornography... a fifth-degree felony in Ohio. If the law is followed, they may all be forced to register as a sex offender for the next ten years, simply for, essentially, receiving a text message from one of their classmates.
This is not the first time kids sending sexy pictures to each other has made front page news around here. The Columbus Dispatch has regularly featured stories about local schools having trouble controlling the spread of sexually explicit material, usually taken by students of themselves, over cell phones. This is a culture where sexual images are readily available to anyone with an internet connection, but at the same time the age of consent is 18, by which time most teens have been dating for years. This is the first time I've heard of this level of charges being filed, however.
It's debateable when teenagers are truly able to make decisions regarding their own bodies for themselves in an adult manner, and of course it will vary from person to person. Obviously in this case the girl exercised extremely bad judgment, and is probably not ready for any of that. My position is that there's only so much control parents and schools have, in the end, and if the goal is to genuinely help the kids instead of simply control them, then the best solution is widespread sex education and availability of contraceptives. But that is only my opinion.
What this case does make clear is that our laws on this subject haven't kept up with changes in technology and resultant changes in our culture. To say that our culture is more sexualized may or may not be true (sure, girls didn't send naked pics over their phone in Little House on the Prairie days, but they did marry Almanzo from the next town over at age 16), but it is certainly true that more and more parts of ourselves are becoming public, and members of the digital generation need time to learn where to draw that line just as they need time to learn everything else. If my work in the state legislature has taught me anything, it's that when you make an arbitrary rule, it will have consequences you did not foresee... and usually not good ones.
Showing posts with label Ohio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ohio. Show all posts
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
MemeWatch: The Second Great Depression
Wherever we are in the world, the economy is obviously in rough shape. In America, polls of likely voters have 60% saying the economy is the most important issue when it comes to deciding who to vote for. In the 1992 election (where the private motto of Bill Clinton's victorious campaign was famously "It's the economy, stupid"), that number never rose above the low forties. With all that attention, the media is sitting up and taking notice. Everyone suddenly wants to hear what previously-boring people like Ben Bernanke and Warren Buffett think of the crisis. And the one question that always seems to be asked is: "Are we on the verge of another Great Depression?"
As I've talked about in previous posts, no matter how bad the current crisis gets, it will be very different from what we call the "Great Depression." Banks failed left and right, and since this was pre-FDIC, the money in those banks effectively ceased to exist. A third of America's wealth disappeared essentially overnight, which led to hardships not just here but across what was at that time a fledgling global economy. It's estimated that about 25% of the country was out of work. And the thing is, though there are specific benchmarks for a "recession," there aren't for a "Depression." It's simply defined as a "very severe recession."
I have very little feel for how it was viewed elsewhere, but the Depression is still seen as an extremely important period of American history. Many of our greatest literary classics date from this time. It changed the face of the country, permanently putting a fork in the rural society in favor of the urban and leading to a sustained phase of western migration. It was the depression, not motion pictures, that really made Los Angeles what it is today. Old institutions collapsed and new ones sprung up. Medicare, Social Security, and the SEC were all direct results of the Depression. The legacy of the Depression was the defining issue in this country, in one way or another, for decades (in my opinion this was followed by the Vietnam-era cultural split, of which this election may serve as the death knell).
So you see that the question of whether that time is back isn't picked out of thin air. Mostly those in power have been reticent to say we're heading towards "another Great Depression." More common is the idea that what we're experiencing is the worst crisis since the Great Depression, which is probably safer. That language has been used (independently, but the whole idea of memes is that it's not really independently) by both President Bush and Sen. Obama, Bush in a prime-time televised address to the nation. But what does that mean?
For the everyday citizen, the best way to look at this (since, as I said, we're not about to lose our savings like they did in 1929) is in terms of unemployment, and how hard it is to get a loan. We're not close to that 25% figure yet, but it's not as far away as we might believe. The official unemployment rate here in Ohio is currently 7.4%. But that doesn't mean that 93% of the population has a job. The unemployment rate only takes into account those who are physically able and currently looking for work. It also doesn't take into account the "underemployed." A year ago, I was making minimum wage working 8 hours a week. I would not have been considered unemployed, though you obviously can't make a living long term doing that. So estimates indicate that the "real" unemployment in this state is much closer to 15%. It's also becoming extremely difficult to get a loan. One example: auto sales (where most customers need loans) are down as much as 75% in the Cleveland area.
So here's the thing: the question isn't out of line, but I'm not sure it's helpful to our understanding of this issue. This is Earth 2.0, and conditions are so different from 1929 that it's comparing apples and oranges. Could you end up reasonably saying this is "as bad as" the Great Depression? Maybe, though it would just be your opinion. But one way I think the two may compare is in their far-reaching effects. What will be the Social Security-like structural change in our country that comes out of this crisis? That will be how its legacy is measured in the end.
As I've talked about in previous posts, no matter how bad the current crisis gets, it will be very different from what we call the "Great Depression." Banks failed left and right, and since this was pre-FDIC, the money in those banks effectively ceased to exist. A third of America's wealth disappeared essentially overnight, which led to hardships not just here but across what was at that time a fledgling global economy. It's estimated that about 25% of the country was out of work. And the thing is, though there are specific benchmarks for a "recession," there aren't for a "Depression." It's simply defined as a "very severe recession."
I have very little feel for how it was viewed elsewhere, but the Depression is still seen as an extremely important period of American history. Many of our greatest literary classics date from this time. It changed the face of the country, permanently putting a fork in the rural society in favor of the urban and leading to a sustained phase of western migration. It was the depression, not motion pictures, that really made Los Angeles what it is today. Old institutions collapsed and new ones sprung up. Medicare, Social Security, and the SEC were all direct results of the Depression. The legacy of the Depression was the defining issue in this country, in one way or another, for decades (in my opinion this was followed by the Vietnam-era cultural split, of which this election may serve as the death knell).
So you see that the question of whether that time is back isn't picked out of thin air. Mostly those in power have been reticent to say we're heading towards "another Great Depression." More common is the idea that what we're experiencing is the worst crisis since the Great Depression, which is probably safer. That language has been used (independently, but the whole idea of memes is that it's not really independently) by both President Bush and Sen. Obama, Bush in a prime-time televised address to the nation. But what does that mean?
For the everyday citizen, the best way to look at this (since, as I said, we're not about to lose our savings like they did in 1929) is in terms of unemployment, and how hard it is to get a loan. We're not close to that 25% figure yet, but it's not as far away as we might believe. The official unemployment rate here in Ohio is currently 7.4%. But that doesn't mean that 93% of the population has a job. The unemployment rate only takes into account those who are physically able and currently looking for work. It also doesn't take into account the "underemployed." A year ago, I was making minimum wage working 8 hours a week. I would not have been considered unemployed, though you obviously can't make a living long term doing that. So estimates indicate that the "real" unemployment in this state is much closer to 15%. It's also becoming extremely difficult to get a loan. One example: auto sales (where most customers need loans) are down as much as 75% in the Cleveland area.
So here's the thing: the question isn't out of line, but I'm not sure it's helpful to our understanding of this issue. This is Earth 2.0, and conditions are so different from 1929 that it's comparing apples and oranges. Could you end up reasonably saying this is "as bad as" the Great Depression? Maybe, though it would just be your opinion. But one way I think the two may compare is in their far-reaching effects. What will be the Social Security-like structural change in our country that comes out of this crisis? That will be how its legacy is measured in the end.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Bits: Theater of the Absurd Edition
-The Machinist today has a great entry on how digitized today's entering college students are, focusing on the Amherst College class of 2012. 99% are on Facebook, 99% have only cell phones, 99% have only laptop computers...
-Michael Grunwald has a great article on Time.com... "Oh, the Drama! McCain in the Theater of the Absurd".
-Watch the Sarah Palin/Katie Couric interview on YouTube. "Saturday Night Live" hardly had to change the words in order make this hysterically awful.
-io9 tells the bizarre story of the recent Season Finale of the Sci-Fi Channel drama "Eureka"... which I recently watched most of without actually realizing it was the series finale. Sci-Fi Channel apparently repeatedly rejected entire plotlines, resulting in the finale basically being improvised by the writers as the episode was filmed... thus lending credence to all those viewers who think "they're just making this up as they go along." "Eureka" is a fun show, but in the end it's inherently "small"... something that, based on my possibly mistaken impressions of what's going on here, may have been Sci-Fi Channel's problem. In other weird news, there's a rumor going around the intertubes that the Sci-Fi Channel wants to change its name to "Beyond." Kay.
-This week's WalrusFile free internet TV pick is the season premiere of "The Office." I'll be trying to come up with a full review of it in the next day or two. In the meantime, discuss amongst yourselves.
-Overlooked News Story of the Day, from the Dayton Daily News: Chemical Irritant Empties Dayton Mosque. An apparent major hate crime not that far from where I live. Sigh.
-Michael Grunwald has a great article on Time.com... "Oh, the Drama! McCain in the Theater of the Absurd".
-Watch the Sarah Palin/Katie Couric interview on YouTube. "Saturday Night Live" hardly had to change the words in order make this hysterically awful.
-io9 tells the bizarre story of the recent Season Finale of the Sci-Fi Channel drama "Eureka"... which I recently watched most of without actually realizing it was the series finale. Sci-Fi Channel apparently repeatedly rejected entire plotlines, resulting in the finale basically being improvised by the writers as the episode was filmed... thus lending credence to all those viewers who think "they're just making this up as they go along." "Eureka" is a fun show, but in the end it's inherently "small"... something that, based on my possibly mistaken impressions of what's going on here, may have been Sci-Fi Channel's problem. In other weird news, there's a rumor going around the intertubes that the Sci-Fi Channel wants to change its name to "Beyond." Kay.
-This week's WalrusFile free internet TV pick is the season premiere of "The Office." I'll be trying to come up with a full review of it in the next day or two. In the meantime, discuss amongst yourselves.
-Overlooked News Story of the Day, from the Dayton Daily News: Chemical Irritant Empties Dayton Mosque. An apparent major hate crime not that far from where I live. Sigh.
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