Authorities said the boy in the picture is 17, while the girl is 16. According to prosecutors, the age of the girl makes the sexually explicit picture child pornography under the law.

Zylstra now faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of the most serious charges, which are felonies.

Protecting the kids from... each other? This, my friends, goes well above and beyond being over the line. The prosecutor just had to walk into the courtroom and throw his/her weight around prove how much of big kid he/she is. All they had to do was say, "look, there is no state interest in prosecuting you for real child pornography creation and dissemination because of the ages involved so, tell you what. We'll drop the charges if you agree to do 50-300 hours of community service. We have to give you something here, just to keep more teens like you from giving dirty old men more masturbation material."

Look, I understand the whole child pornography ecosystem concept behind the major penalties for even possessing the crap, but this is ridiculous. They're risking ruining the guy's life over a few pictures of an event that took place in front of a bunch of minors. This wasn't some six year old getting raped in some pedophile's room, but a public sex act getting recorded for posterity, and on top of it that po widdle kiddy was sixteen when she let the guy in the picture have his way with her. Two years away from being a full adult. Any smart jury would nullify this case with extreme prejudice if the prosecution doesn't slap the guy on the wrist over it.