'On its face,' Owens writes, 'this prohibition extends to any person who disseminates an image of any minor, even if the minor is disseminating a self-produced image. Writing for the majority, Justice Susan Owens concludes that Gray's behavior fits the plain meaning of Washington's statute, which says 'a person' is guilty of a Class B felony when he 'knowingly develops, duplicates, publishes, prints, disseminates, exchanges, finances, attempts to finance, or sells a visual or printed matter that depicts a minor engaged in an act of sexually explicit conduct.' The law does not say the 'person' and the 'minor' have to be different people.
Last week, the Washington Supreme Court upheld Gray's conviction on that charge, which makes him a perpetrator as well as a victim, guilty of exploiting himself.Īlthough Gray's dick pic was unwelcome, this ruling implies that teenagers who engage in consensual sexting are committing felony sex crimes. She thought he was harassing her and contacted police, who thought he was distributing child pornography. When Eric Gray was 17, he took a picture of his penis and texted it to a 22-year-old woman he fancied, asking, 'Do u like it babe?' Gray, whose lack of social skills had led to a diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome, may have thought he was courting the woman.
