Spoiler: SVU - "The law hasn't caught up with new technology. They don't realize the consequences of their actions."

Last night's Law & Order: SVU was awesome not only because it tackled a timely and interesting topic, but also because there was a huge twist at the end. I am not going to summarize the episode, but I will highlight a few high points, including the vocabulary lesson I got.

- Most of the episode was based on this new fad called sexting. This is when someone takes a naked picture and sends it via text to different people. This has been happening a lot recently and the kids who do it often don't realize that they can, if caught, be charged with distributing child pornography, which is what happened in the episode.
- While I knew all about sexting, I had never heard of spoofing, but I learned about it last night. Apparently there are websites that through the site you can call a phone number but make it so that the number picked up on caller ID is another number. So by using these websites you are deliberately faking the caller ID. I can see how this one will be used for evil.
- Following the sexting scandal, doctors tell the detectives that someone is beating the teenager regularly. In the end it turns out to be her boyfriend, but what worries me is that this couple was so young. I know it must happen, but it is scary that teenagers now have to worry about domestic abuse.
- Wow what a twist at the end! The girl was being charged for child pornography only as a way to get her to talk about her abuser. Once she identified that person, both lawyers agreed to drop the porn charges. But the judge ruled against them and found her guilty for the porn charge, a charge she was never supposed to face. The judge was obviously making an example out of the case but sentencing her to a rehab facility for a year was too much. So the detectives do a bit of digging into the judge's past and find out there is a clerk she is paying off to pad her dockets with cases where the acts could be construed as sexual offenses. The judge, whose brother owns a facility, would then send the children, as punishment, to this place and get a payout for filling a bed.

I love when shows make me gasp and last night's SVU did just that. Was anyone else shocked at the end? Did anyone else enjoy the episode?