The fact that teens are children means that if, say a 16-yo sends a nude selfie to their s.o., they've just committed a felony (distributing child pornography) that can have lifelong consequences (thanks to hysterical laws about sex offender registries, both kids could end up having to register as sex offenders for the rest of their life and will be identified as having committed a crime that involved a minor. Few if any of the registries would say more than this and anyone who looks in the registry will be led to believe that they molested a child and not shared a selfie or had one shared with them). The laws may not be just or correct, but they are the current state of the world. Parents need to talk to their kids about this sort of thing, and this seems one of the less intrusive way for them to discover that there's an issue. If it were automatically shared with law enforcement? That would be a big problem (and a guarantee that my kids don't get access to a device until they're 18), but I'm not ready¹ to be up in arms about this yet.
1. I reserve the right to change my mind as things are revealed/developed.
1. I reserve the right to change my mind as things are revealed/developed.