Text lands teen on sex offender list

Phillip Alpert, 19 years old and a recently-registered sex offender, pointed to pictures of his young sisters on his cell phone. "When people see these pictures, it's not this kid that's a good big brother that loves his sister," he said, "it's a sex offender, with pictures of little girls on his phone. That's not me."

But Alpert is a registered sex offender, listed with all the child molesters, rapists, and the rest on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Sexual Offender Registry.

A year ago, after breaking up with his 16-year-old girlfriend, he got angry. He emailed a nude picture of her to more than seventy people, including her parents. He said she sent him the picture while they were dating.

His text was reported to police and he was later arrested for transmitting child pornography, a charge which he contests. "Child porn? No!" said Alpert. "The girl is 16-years-old!" But the law says she is a child.

A remorseful Alpert admited he made a terrible mistake, but feels the punishment is excessive. "I didn't cause trauma to her. I didn't ruin her life. I embarrassed her," he said, adding, "a lot of my friends have not stood by me. People don't want to talk to me anymore."

Attorney Lawrence Walters agreed. "These laws are designed to punish the worst child rapists and pedophiles in our society. They're designed to punish the adult that tells a toddler to perform a sex act on camera, terrible behavior! They're not designed to punish teens who share racy photos of themselves via the internet or cell phones."

For now, the way the law stands, the law does punish those who send illicit text messages of minors and get caught.

Alpert has served one year of a very strict probation and still has four more to go. After that, he will be required to stay registered as a sex offender until he is at least 43.