The law to me is nothing. I don't think it's going to stop anyone," said Bianca Secchia, 14, who participated in the demonstration Saturday and shared another, less political smooch afterward with her boyfriend, Attie Nortje, 17, at the darkened Northgate Ice Arena.

Strictly speaking, the law criminalized for those under 16 a remarkably broad range of behavior, including mouth-to-mouth contact and any other form of touching that could cause sexual arousal.

Yet news of the law triggered a backlash among thousands of students armed with little more than computers, Facebook accounts and an acute sense of outrage at what they regarded as the clueless behavior of repressive adults. Many teens also posted pictures of themselves engaged in amorous, but largely PG-rated, exchanges.