Idaho officials say ‘sexting’ phenom on the rise
Tuesday, June 2, 2009 10:57 AM PDT
BOISE (AP) — Authorities say a Nampa high school freshman who sent nude photos of herself to a boyfriend that were distributed to classmates via cell phone text messages is just the most public incident of so-called ‘‘sexting’’ to emerge in Idaho.
Bryan Taylor, chief of the special victims unit at the Canyon County Sheriff’s Office, said that over the past two months he’s been getting two calls a week from school resource officers alerting him to inappropriate photos disseminated by students via their cell phones.
In some parts of the United States, law enforcement agents have used anti-pornography laws to prosecute teens. While local prosecutors say felony porn charges are too punitive for most sexting cases, they may soon begin pressing charges of misdemeanor disseminating material harmful to minors to reinforce the message that such behavior isn’t to be tolerated.
‘‘There does need to be some kind of consequence,’’ Canyon County Prosecutor John Bujak told the Idaho Statesman. ‘‘There were concerns that this stuff may be happening at the middle-school level.’’
Those convicted face up to 90 days in juvenile detention. Bujak and other law enforcement officers in southwestern Idaho met last week on the issue, and now plan to visit schools starting next fall to discuss why the problem has become so serious.
For instance, Jessica Logan, an 18-year-old Ohio girl whose boyfriend circulated nude photos of Logan after they broke up, hanged herself in 2008.
In Pennsylvania, pictures of two 13-year-old northeastern Pennsylvania girls in their skivvies wound up on classmates’ cell phones, prompting one prosecutor to threaten charging the youngsters with child pornography or open lewdness.
And in Ohio, two teenagers caught with nude photos on their cell phones were ordered earlier this month to surrender their phones, perform 100 hours of community service and receive counseling.
