Does it violate First Amendment free speech protections to convict a person for conduct involving distributing obscene material to a minor without having a scienter requirement as to the age of the victim or permitting a mistake-of-age defense?

QUESTIONS PRESENTED Mr. Dupriest met T.B. while playing an online video game primarily played by young adults. Their conversation and relationship continued after the game via online communications. T.B. stated numerous times, including at trial, that he had told Mr. Dupriest he was older than he actually was when they first started talking. Their conversation eventually became romantic, and Mr. Dupriest shared naked pictures of himself with T.B. At the time Mr. Dupriest sent the pictures, their communication had been entirely online with no face-to-face interaction. Only later did Mr. Dupriest learn that | T.B. was a minor. At trial, however, the jury was not instructed that the State was required to prove Mr. Dupriest knew the age of the victim. Additionally, Mr. Dupriest was disallowed from raising a defense to the charges that he thought T.B. was of age | when he sent the pictures. Mr. Dupriest was subsequently convicted of endangering | the welfare of the child and placed on the sex offender registry where he will likely | remain for the rest of this life. These facts present two significant questions for this Court to resolve: L Does it violate First Amendment free speech protections to convict a person for conduct involving distributing obscene material to a minor without having a scienter requirement as to the age of the victim or permitting a mistake-of-age defense? ; I. Does it violate Fourteenth Amendment due process protections to convict a person for sending an explicit picture to a minor without having a scienter requirement as to the age of the victim or allowing a mistake-of-age defense when the entire interaction took place online with no in person, face-to-face communication? : i