Officials Charge Teens With Porn For ‘Sexting’
Parents and school administrators are worried about a new trend among teenagers called "sexting."Â
"Sexting," which is text-messaging a explicit self-portrait to someone, is being cracked down on by prosecutors who are charging some teens with child pornography and other felonies.
"Hopefully we’ll get the message out to these kids," Michael McAlexander, a prosecutor in Allen County, Ind, told the Associated Press. One teenage boy in the county is facing felony obscenity charges for sending a photo of his genitals to female classmates.Â
Whether it’s meant to harass or flirt, law enforcement officials want it to stop. Some are threatening to go as far as to mark teenagers as "sex offenders" for the act.
"We don’t want to throw these kids in jail," McAlexander says. "But we want them to think."
This month in Greensburg, Pa. three high school girls sent seminude photos to four male students. All seven where charged with child pornography.
In Newark, Ohio, a 15-year-old girl faces similar charges for sending nude photos to classmates. The girl agreed to a curfew, supervised Internet usage, and no cell phone over a few months. It she sticks with the agreement, the charges will be dropped.
In the Greensburg, Pa. case, all but one of the students agreed to a lesser charge to avoid a trial. The mother of one of the boys is fighting all of the charges against her son.
The fact that child pornography charges are being filed against teenagers is stirring debate among adults and students.
Jamie Bennish, a junior at Greensburg-Salem High School says she doesn’t believe the boys in the case should have been charged.
"They did not necessarily choose to receive the pictures, although I find it questionable that they did not delete the photos from their cell phones after some period of time," she told the Associated Press. "As for the girls, there is no excuse for exposing yourself in that way, and any charges they receive they have brought upon themselves."
According to Dante Vertani, chief public defender in Westmoreland County, Pa., where the students went to court, the felony charges were "horrendous."
"It should be an issue between the school, the parents and the kids – and primarily the parents and the kids," Vertani said. "It’s not something that should be going through the criminal system."
Wes Weaver, principal at Licking Valley High School, where the Ohio offender attends school, says that pornography charges are not appropriate in these situations.
Weaver believes there needs to be a way to better educate students and parents on the consequences of “sexting.”
"I don’t think we’re anywhere near having a handle on this," Weaver says. "It’s beyond our scope as a school."
Companies, such as WebSafety Inc, have created software to monitor certain activity on computers and cell phones, including alerting parents when their child uses X-rated texting terms.
These companies are still unable to monitor photos, requiring parents to manually check their child’s phone.
According to Dr. Terri Randall, an adolescent psychiatrist, checking your child’s phone is within your rights as a parent.
"It could be part of the contract of having a cell phone, that you really don’t get 100 percent privacy. It’s just one more way of keeping track, like knowing what your kid is doing and where they are," says Randall.
Randall says she has seen an increase in the number of sexting issues since cameras have become standard on most cell phones.
Some patients tell Randall how the explicit messages have brought on relationship problems, and have been embarrassing after a breakup.
But is “sexting” a type of pornography? Randall believes that is questionable.
Amanda Lenhart, of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, says technology can make it easier to do things we would not normally do in person.
"I think this is merely another case of technology extending an activity or action that young people have engaged in for years, if not beyond that," says Lenhart.
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