Singer edits video with kids, arrested

[BigB08822]

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bes...est.hln?hpt=T2

I didn't know how to title this in one line so sorry if the title of the thread is confusing.

A 21 year old man went to a school and sang for a group of kids. Later he edited the video and put in a very explicit song. He is now under arrest and facing a possible 20 year sentence and having to register on a sex offender list for 25 years along with any fines.

Is this right? I see things like this on every single late night show out there. Just off the top of my head, Jimmy Kimmel or someone does a "unnecessary censhorship" segment and it often censors children on Sesame Street or something to make them seem to be saying really crude things. Yes, sometimes even sexual. Of course it is bleeped so nothing is truly said, it is just an illusion, but it is using children and adult situations to make something funny. This seems like something Chelsea Handler could film and the whole world would laugh but this guy does it and he is now a sex offender?

I don't think what he did was right, but I think throwing him in jail is a huge over reaction. At most he owes an apology to the children and their parents but I am not sure anything he did was illegal.

Having said all of this, I also haven't seen the video because it was pulled from youtube. Maybe it really is that disturbing but what stands out as the key factor here is he did NOT sing the song to the kids. He went back to edit it in to get the shock factor he was looking for.

[Jot the Dot Dot]

The sexual subjegation of children must always remain a crime; that never happened here. He didn't even openly talk/sing sexually or suggestively, that was done post videotaping. That it was done without/against their parent's permission is grounds for him to be banned from that school, and other schools consider that option, in short, ostracism and social boycott. But jail and official registry as a sex-offender is going overboard.

[millyskate]

He could probably be sued for a couple of things by the parents, but being a sex offender should not be one of them. It's getting ridiculous.

[susan6]

Having to register as a sex offender is ridiculous, but he could get sued for something (lots of lawsuits involve the phrase "false pretenses" or the like).

It sort of reminds me of the choir that sings on the Rolling Stones' "You can't always get what you want"....they were OK with being recorded for a track, but were apparently taken aback when they figured out the topic of the song and the other songs on the album (they wanted their names taken off the album).

[Buzz]

Here are some things that come to me when I read about what this guy did...

In poor taste, yes.
A stupid thing to do? Yes
Is he sexualizing children? yes.
Is it immoral? yes.
Should he have known better? yes.
Are the charges going overboard? yes
A criminal act? Let the courts decide.
Should he be on the sex offender registry? NO

[BigB08822]

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that one of those kids has a daddy, mommy, grandparents, etc high up in law enforcement or as a D.A. I don't see how they could go so overboard with their charges. I seriously wonder if he will have grounds to countersue when all is said and done.

[MacMadame]

I think we can't really judge if the punishment fits the crime until we see the video. Of course the singer/his lawyer is going to downplay what he did and make excuses, but he exploited those kids and (a) thought it was a cool idea and (b) wasn't particularly remorseful when he got caught. This raises some red flags for me.

[BigB08822]

I don't think the video matters. The song can be the worst song you've ever heard but if he didn't sing it to them and only edited it in, then the charges are too much. Now, if he edited in scenes of child porn then that is understandable but nothing so far has claimed anything so serious.

[MacMadame]

I understand your POV, but I'm a parent and I would be super-upset if it was my kid(s) in the video. I would consider them to have been exploited even if they didn't actually hear the song. There are plenty of ways to be exploited other than listening to explicit lyrics.

Something that pedophiles do is find pictures of kids on the internet and paste their heads onto the bodies of other photos of people having sex. To me, this is the same thing and it should be punished the same.

Also, in spite of the wide-spread belief that tons of people are being put on the sex offenders list for "no good reason" it's very hard to get that sentence yet someone who saw the video (which we haven't) thought that was a reasonable punishment.

[marbri]

Some of the lyrics to the song:

"See how long it takes to make your panties mine...
I´ll add some foreplay in just to make if fun.
I want to stick my index finger in your xxx."

I'd be pretty pissed off if some guy came into my kids school under false pretences planning to put a video of my child up on youtube with lyrics like that.

Don't know what the punishment should be but it isn't right to do that to children without anyone's knowledge. His lawyer can wax on forever about how the kids never saw it but I don't think that matters. I don't think it's funny editing in a song about sticking your index finger in a kids xxx and uploading it to youtube to become a star.

[vesperholly]

Something that pedophiles do is find pictures of kids on the internet and paste their heads onto the bodies of other photos of people having sex. To me, this is the same thing and it should be punished the same.

That's a vile and disgusting thing to do, but it's not the same thing as actually molesting a child, and I disagree that it should be punished with the same degree of severity. Drawing a murder isn't the same as committing one.

[MacMadame]

That's a vile and disgusting thing to do, but it's not the same thing as actually molesting a child, and I disagree that it should be punished with the same degree of severity. Drawing a murder isn't the same as committing one.

I said putting the kids in the video was the same as putting kids' faces on pictures of people having sex. I never said it was the same as molesting them. Good grief.

[vesperholly]

I said putting the kids in the video was the same as putting kids' faces on pictures of people having sex. I never said it was the same as molesting them. Good grief.

Misread.

[MacMadame]

Well okay then.

[BigB08822]

It is actually not hard at all to have to be put on a sex offender list. A just turned 18 year old boy can be turned in by his 16 year old girlfriends parents and have to register as a sex offender even though these kids may have been dating since they were 14 and 16 and she was only a few weeks away from turning 17 and being legal. This depends where you live, of course, but you get the point. This happens much more than you think.

There is also a very big dose of double standard going on (in general, not in this particular case). A guy does something and he is a registered sex offender, a women does the same and she is a cougar. Men molests children, women just take advantage of horny boys.

[Civic]

...There is also a very big dose of double standard going on (in general, not in this particular case). A guy does something and he is a registered sex offender, a women does the same and she is a cougar. Men molests children, women just take advantage of horny boys.

Not always. There have been some well-publicized cases of women who had the book thrown at them for having sex with underaged boys.

[BigB08822]

Of course not always.

[PDilemma]

A male teacher at a school I taught at hit on a 14 year old student with an inappropriate text message about wanting to date her and made an unsuccessful attempt to kiss her. He only touched her shoulders and she ran away from him.

He got ten months in prison and put on the sex offender list for ten years.

What he did was horrible and wrong. He deserved to lose his teaching certificate and his job. He even deserved to be charged with a crime. But the sentence seemed to most of us to be overkill.

At the same time, the female teacher in Florida who had sex with a student got a misdemeanor and probation because the judge thought she was "too pretty" for jail.

[milanessa]

At the same time, the female teacher in Florida who had sex with a student got a misdemeanor and probation because the judge thought she was "too pretty" for jail.

That is absolutely untrue.

[BigB08822]

Well regardless of the reason, the women, who does have sex with a child, gets off much more easily than the man who didn't even touch the girl in a sexual way (despite wanting to and even trying). Sex crimes are awful, they really are, but sometimes society has too much of a knee jerk reaction to them and the punishment does not always fit the crime.