SALON

Farhad Manjoo

Wednesday, May 21, 2008 7:35 PM UTC

Teen Alex Phillips puts girlfriend’s nude shots on MySpace: Child porn?

This guy doesn't seem very bright.

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Teen Alex Phillips puts girlfriend's nude shots on MySpace: Child porn?

The Smoking Gun

Alex Phillips

Here’s the low-down on the alleged asshat to the right: Alex Phillips, a 17-year-old in Wisconsin, was, for a time, dating — well, that’s probably a nice way to put it — a 16-year-old girl (whose name hasn’t been made public).

The pair were apparently quite close, so close that she, as teens these days do, gave him two cell phone-captured pictures of herself.

One picture showed the girl naked, full-frontal; the other, to quote police, displayed her “buttocks, anus and vagina.”

Ah, young love.

But then the relationship inexplicably turned sour. Mr. Phillips was apparently quite angry about this turn of events, and he responded in a most unadvisable manner. He posted the nude pictures on his MySpace page.

Quite the poet, he captioned them:

Yo tell me this bitch desurves this!!!!!!! This is HLK yall! Yo, U see how big her hole is! Its from me! TF gets my leftover’s to bad she fucked.

Adding insult to idiocy, when a police officer called Phillips to inform him that he’d face charges if he didn’t remove the photos, Einstein is said to have responded, “Fuck that, I am keeping them up.”

After mulling over his proposal, the authorities countered, Fuck that, we’re charging you with child porn.

On Tuesday, Phillips was charged with possession of child pornography, sexual exploitation of a child, and defamation. If convicted, he can face a maximum penalty of 16 years in prison.

Seriously? Child porn? I understand this kid’s a doofus, but does it really make him a sex-offender? Like Nick Douglas over at Gawker, I think the punishment’s a tad severe.

The police report makes clear that the girl in question was “very upset” about her nude photos going online; surely Phillips defamed her. It seems much harder to prove, though, that he “sexually exploited” her — especially since she snapped the pictures of herself.

On the other hand, if this case deters other dumped teen boys from getting nudie MySpace revenge on their exes, perhaps it’s for the best.

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