Girl Charged After Sending Explicit Selfie: 'I'm Not A Criminal'

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A teenage girl facing criminal charges after she sent an explicit selfie through Snapchat to a classmate says she is not a criminal.

"Sexting is common among teens at my school, and we shouldn't face charges for doing it. I don't want anyone else to go through what I'm going through," the 14-year-old girl said in a statement released by the Minnesota chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota.

ACLU-MN says they are in full support of "Jane Doe," and suggested the prosecution is not taking into account the intent of the state's child pornography statute.

"No reasonable kid would realize that what she is doing is wrong and that what she is doing is a felony and so that's another reason that the court should not allow this prosecution to go forward," ACLU-MN legal director Teresa Nelson said.

The ACLU-MN said that the laws exist to prosecute people who endanger or victimize juveniles.

"To suggest that a juvenile who sends a sexually explicit selfie is a victim of her own act of child pornography is illogical," Nelson said. "Child pornography laws are supposed to protect minors from predators, and Jane Doe is not a predator."

According to the ACLU-MN, the girl, who currently faces felony charges in Rice County, would be forced to register as a predatory sex offender for the next 10 years if she's found guilty.