A recent USA Today article discusses the emerging trend of teenagers sending nude photos of themselves to one another via cellphone or the internet, a phenomenon known as “sexting.” Now, as the courts are stepping in with charges of child pornography, adults and students are being forced to once again educate themselves about the real world dangers of “harmless” online activities.
A growing number of teens are ending up in serious trouble for sending racy photos with their cellphones.
Police have investigated more than two dozen teens in at least six states this year for sending nude images of themselves in cellphone text messages, which can bring a charge of distributing child pornography. Authorities typically are notified by parents or schools about so-called “sexting.”
This week in Spotsylvania, Va., two boys, ages 15 and 18, were charged with solicitation and possession of child porn with intent to distribute after an investigation found they sought nude pictures from three juveniles — one in elementary school.
“It’s absolutely becoming a bigger problem,” says Michelle Collins of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
Finding appropriate penalties for this behavior is also a concern for judges, teens and parents:
In Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Juvenile Court Judge Thomas O’Malley struggled to figure out what to do with eight teens, 14 to 17, caught trading nude cellphone pictures of themselves. He says the father of one of the girls found the images.
If the 17-year-old who sent the nude photos to an ex-boyfriend were convicted of a child-porn charge, he says, she would be a registered sex offender for 20 years.
“These kids have no record, not even a parking ticket,” says O’Malley, a father of four teens.
He required each to do community service and to ask peers if they knew sexting was a crime. They told O’Malley they surveyed 225 teens; 31 knew.
ReputationDefender encourages parents to educate their children about practicing safe online behavior.
8 comments ↓
Wow. It’s a problem when only 31 out of 225 people actually know that what they are doing is considered a crime–especially when those people are younger than 15 years old. It’s terrible that this has become such an issue, but I do have some reservations on the topic. It’s hard for me to justify the conviction of a juvenile boy for sending his ex-girlfriend’s naked pictures to friends as equal to producing/sending out child porn. There should certainly be laws in such cases, but I don’t think those include the sex offender laws that currently apply. I watched an interesting video on this controversy and several opinions at newsy.com earlier today. It’s worthy checking out:
http://www.newsy.com/videos/sexting_flirting_with_felony/
They should have watched this http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1924598
[...] isn’t the first time we’ve written about sexting here at the ReputationDefender Blog. According to recent studies, almost one in five teens have [...]
[...] isn’t the first time we’ve written about sexting here at the ReputationDefender Blog. According to recent studies, almost one in five teens have [...]
[...] at the ReputationDefender Blog, we’ve talked about the problem of sexting on numerous occasions. As more and more media attention has been shined on the issue, however, some [...]
[...] at the ReputationDefender Blog, we’ve talked about the problem of sexting on numerous occasions. As more and more media attention has been shined on the issue, however, some [...]
[...] said it’s important for parents to talk about sexting with their kids, but is it something that the NBA needs to explain to its players [...]
[...] said it’s important for parents to talk about sexting with their kids, but is it something that the NBA needs to explain to its players [...]
Leave a Comment