Sexting???

Most children especially teenagers have cell phones now a day and most have camera’s in their phone. However there is a new trend going on that has criminal consequences which could end your child in trouble. Have you ever heard of sexting well neither did I until today. Sexting is “the practice of taking a sexually revealing picture of yourself, typically from a cell phone and sending it to someone” (Larry Magid, 2009). There are also legal consequences with sexting especially when you’re a child or teen. You can actually be charged with child pornography but how could a child be charged with child pornography? Image is from flickr.com/photos/robwallace/736541861/

At Glen Rock Middle and High School police say that there are nude cell phone self-portraits of an eighth grade girl circulating around the schools. The girl sent the pictures to a friend last fall in confidence however started to circulating last Friday. In reaction to this the “school called parents with a stern warning: anyone found with the photos could be prosecuted”. The police also said that if anyone had the pictures "That if they had it to bring it to the police or to delete it within 24 hours." The school is also sending out a letter to parents explaining how these photos are child pornography and “Having or distributing them is considered endangering the welfare of a child”.

Alana O’Neill, a student at Glen Rock explained how she though "I didn't really know that until my mom mentioned it the other day that you could get in trouble for it. And I don't think that many kids know that anything bad can happen from it". This is because children this age think there invincible and that the law doesn’t apply to them but it does.

There have not been any charges filed yet for students having or distributing the photos but are giving a deadline until April 9th to get rid of them. After this date police say they will fill charges. This Thursday the police and Bergen County will have an assembly for students at the Glen Rock schools explaining the child pornography laws.

Children shouldn’t being sending sexting messages because it is degrading to themselves and there are too many people out there who are sick and get off on pictures like that so why would you want your pictures seen by everyone I sure wouldn’t. Things that you do when you’re young have consequences including the things you post and take pictures of once you send a message or post something it’s out there in the virtual world and you can’t take it back most of the time. So my advice to adolescents is being careful and try goggling yourself you might be surprised about what’s out there about you! This is a link to the news cast: wcbstv.com/video/?id=126291@wcbs.dayport.com