Constitutional lawyer Tiffany Twivey-Nongorr has called the proposed PNG ban an outrageous breach of human rights.

As part of a review of the Censorship Act, PNG's Censorhip Board is considering banning sexting, the act of sending of sexually explicit messages or material by mobile phones.

Someone who sends an explicit message or picture could face up to five years' jail under the proposal.

Ms Twivey-Nongorr said if the ban is implemented, she will consider a constitutional challenge to its legality.

"It's a ridiculous, archaic, draconian piece of legislation that should never see the light of day," she said.

"It's ridiculous because it appears that the same mobile phone can be used to express verbally what is in a sext, but the minute that it's typed into a text, it's going to become illegal," she said.

"It's getting ridiculous - we've got to stop legislating morality from time to time and start focusing on the real issues in Papua New Guinea."

She says there are already current laws to deal with people receiving unwanted sexts.

And police would struggle to enforce the ban, because there is limited documentation and many people use fake names when buying phones in PNG, she added.

Ms Twivey-Nongorr believes the proposed legislation is a combination of advisors not understanding PNG conditions and a growing influence of fundamentalist Christians from overseas.

"The only way it could be policed is by people reporting, and the only people that are going to report about it are those that receive sexts that are unwanted - and they're covered by current legislation," she said.

Ms Twivery-Nongorr said pornography is illegal in PNG, so any concerns on that front are already covered by law too.

Sources

• Yahoo News Singapore
• Image: Radio Australia

Image: Radio Australia

Celebrity culture, the prevalence of sexual imagery and a lack of awareness about the consequences are among the pressures experts say are being piled on teenagers.

Parents are now being called on to educate themselves about the risks their children are being exposed to in the same way as they inform themselves about drink and drugs.

The issue has been raised by forensic psychologist Dr Maureen Griffin addressing a child protection conference.

One in four teenagers who responded to a survey admitted sending sexual images of themselves by mobile phone, Dr Griffin revealed.

Secondary school pupils are being surrounded by sexual imagery and are being pressurised to send provocative messages, the psychologist warned.

As part of the worrying trend, children as young as 10 are copying lewd celebrity culture by swapping naked pictures of themselves via mobile phone. Continue reading

He quizzed his texting partner about sex videos, pressed for details about intimate liaisons, described sexual acts and encouraged mutual masturbation.

He also repeatedly asked to meet. "Promise me you will never breath (sic) a word of this to anyone — ok?" he wrote.

Riedlinger, 30, had good reason for discretion. He was a priest at St. Aloysius Church in Jackson, N.J., and while exchanging more than 1,200 text messages over four weeks last year, he thought he was talking to a 16-year-old boy.

In reality, Riedlinger was the target of an elaborate sting by a 23-year-old man who says the priest sexually harassed him for years.

Timothy Schmalz, who lives in Washington after graduating from Catholic University, said he was moved to action after his first complaint about Riedlinger in 2011 resulted in what he characterized as a slap on the wrist by Trenton Bishop David M. O'Connell.

Schmalz is one of five young men who provided similar accounts of harassment and sexual obsession by the priest. Four of the five were in their late teens or early 20s when Riedlinger began inappropriate and persistent sexual dialogues with them, they said. The fifth was in his late 20s.

The sting, initiated on Facebook and carried out through the use of a Google Voice account, partially served its purpose.

After Schmalz forwarded transcripts of the text messages and other materials to O'Connell in August 2012, Riedlinger was removed from the parish and placed in an in-patient treatment program. He was later assigned to restricted ministry away from children.

Sources:

RNS

Image: Calgary Sun