Wisconsin certainly seems to be the hot spot for outrageously unethical behavior these days. According to the online article at http://www.westallisnow.com/news/64278917.html, a 14-year old boy was found with 80 nude and semi-nude photos of approximately 50 girls on his cell phone and iPod. Investigators have identified seven young girls who said they sent him photos. They were told that if they did not, he would spread rumors about them. Some were told if they refused, he would distribute the explicit photos of the girls that he already had.

The boy may face charges of child pornography, a felony, as well as two misdemeanors: making threats to communicate defamatory information and exposing genitals. He has been suspended and is also facing expulsion from the school.

Reading the comment boards attached to various articles on this issue made my brain feel like it was going to explode from frustration, disbelief and disgust.

It was protested that the boy is just a 14-year-old with hormones who cannot control himself. One poster said a more appropriate punishment would be to ground him and take the pictures away. Another said the suspect is innocent because it’s not like he spied on anybody, those girls were just being promiscuous.

What classic reactions of our society.

Being blackmailed into giving someone a naked image of oneself is not being “promiscuous.” Being forced to allow someone to masturbate to the image of one’s body is a sexual violation of one’s body and one’s privacy. It is sexual assault, plain and simple. Blaming the girls is as bad as those who say, “she must have been asking for it” about rape victims. These girls were backed into a virtual corner and threatened into giving up explicit photos. They are not Delilahs, they are victims.

Anyone who tries to excuse this boy by saying “He’s only 14,” or “He’s a guy, he can’t help it,” are kidding themselves. I am sick and tired of people being given the green light to be immature and offensive until the age of 30, because anyone younger than that is just “sowing wild oats.” Men in particular are usually excused for sexually inappropriate behavior. “He’s a man, he can’t help it” has been an acceptable excuse for far too long. Fourteen-years-old is more than old enough for anyone, male or female, to know that it is wrong to blackmail one’s classmates into sending one naked pictures of themselves.

This young man is not being funny and he is not conducting a high-spirited high school prank. He is a sexual predator. What do people who want to brush off his crimes as typical teenage behavior think is going to happen in the future if he  is let off the hook now? Unchecked, he is going to continue to prey on women! Telling him it’s OK when he’s 14 isn’t going to stop him; it’s going to give him the go-ahead to do it again, because he can get away with it.

Do I think his parents are partly at fault here? Probably. Didn’t they teach their child any morals, any sense of right and wrong? And even if they tried, why are they letting him have a camera phone and an iPod when he’s obviously incapable of using those devices properly? And you have to wonder: Why didn’t any of these young women feel they could approach their parents when they were threatened? What kind of communication and trust between parent and child is there? But the greater issue remains that regardless of how and why this teenage boy is sexually preying on his classmates, something drastic needs to be done about it.

Clearly something needs to change here. This is not the first time something like this happened, nor will it be the last. Young men and women are getting in way over their heads with technology, and nobody seems to be guiding them in the department of basic human decency. Maybe schools should start making “How to reach maturity 101” a mandatory class, because America’s youth certainly doesn’t seem to be getting that information anywhere else. And people who excuse offensive, unethical, destructive and downright illegal behavior as being the normal escapades of the youth are only adding fuel to the fire. Let’s stop dismissing these things and start treating them as what they are: serious cases of sexual assault, before our whole society burns down.