“There is a lot of strong anecdotal evidence that child pornography laws work the same way all of our other laws do, which is they’re disproportionately applied to people of color,” said Amy Hasinoff, Associate Professor of Communication. “They’re disproportionately applied to kids in foster care, because they’re under more scrutiny. They’re disproportionately applied, as with any laws around sexual activity, to kids who are gay or trans.” Child pornography statutes were originally designed to protect children from exploitation, not to prosecute them. But with the advent of sexting, minors who trade sexually explicit images are technically producing, distributing, and possessing child pornography.

When teens are treated like child pornographers for sexting
HuffPost, Sept 5