Audrie Pott, a fifteen-year-old Californian girl, took her

life, apparently in reaction to being sexually assaulted by three 16-year-old

boys. What made the alleged rape so horrific for her was that the boys took

pictures of the incident and spread them through the highschool, humiliating



her and making her life at Saratoga High School hell.

Rape is an old crime, but the spreading of explicit pictures

of minors and by minors leads to complicated and difficult possibilities.

Sexting and the exchanging of nude pics is common among teenagers, and lends

itself to all sorts of abuse and humiliation. Legislating ways that could

somehow control the temptations to spread embarrassing photos is difficult, and

inevitably leads to cases like Pott’s who hung herself, apparently because she

panicked at not only being assaulted, but being then humiliated throughout her

highschool.

That this happened at a party in which parents were absent

and alcohol was present seems to be a familiar theme, but not one smart parents

can simply lecture away or prevent from happening to their own kid. And again,

alcohol is an old story, but cyberbullying and the exposure of private pictures

to a potentially world-wide audience add a greater weight to the pranks and

cruelty typical of teenagers.

The boys involved in this case have not given their side of

the story yet. That minors can now be exploited, on a wider scale also by each

other, makes the good things about internet and photo technology a double-edged

sword.