It’s common to see Treasure Coast teens and preteens using cell phones for sending text messages and photos.

But it’s also becoming common for teens nationwide to send other things via their phones or computer Web cameras, including explicit and sexual photographs that have given the phenomenon a new name — sexting.

“It’s been going on for several years here. We just didn’t call it this,” said Detective Brian Broughton of the Martin County Sheriff’s Office. “Now it has a little buzz word, but basically we’re referring to the same thing — when children would take nude pictures of themselves and send it to other children.”

Across the nation, some teens are facing prosecution for pornography and some are being added to sexual offender lists. But on the Treasure Coast, law enforcement officials say there hasn’t been a case of that magnitude.

In the Martin County incidents involving teens, Broughton said the children ranged between the ages of 12 and 14 and criminal charges were not filed.

“Between the webcams and the camera phones we’ve come across these cases sporadically over the past couple of years. “We’ve had young teen girls, where their images have been compromised after they’ve sent them out and they’ve been posted on MySpace.com, or threatened to be posted on MySpace,” Broughton said. “Particularly with the young children we try to deal with those on a family level. Broughton said, adding that parents often put restrictions on computer and cell phone privileges after an incident. Technically they are committing a crime, but at that point you have to weigh how the pictures came about.”

A study from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy reported in December that 20 percent of 653 teenagers polled had posted nude or seminude pictures of themselves at least once via computer or cell phone. According to Nielsen Mobile, 46 percent of U.S. youths between ages 8-12 and 80 percent of teens ages 13 to 17 use a mobile phone.

“We had one (incident) nine months ago, but it wasn’t that big of a deal,” Indian River County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Deputy Jeff Luther said. “So we haven’t really had any complaints on it.”

Detective Neil Spector, an Internet investigator for the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office, said most complaints come through school resource officers and are more prevalent with high school students. But there hasn’t been a sexting case where criminal charges were filed against teens.

“They’re young kids, you have to prove criminal intent, and the best thing we’ve been doing is talking to the parents, talking to the kids,” Spector said. “Just like the Internet, the parents are oblivious to this activity because it’s so new.”

A common sexting scenario often involves a girl taking explicit photographs of herself and showing them to her boyfriend, whom she trusts. Later, the boyfriend sends the images to his friends — or if they have broken up, he might send them to many more people, Broughton said.

That’s what happened with Phillip Alpert in Orlando.

After breaking up with his younger girlfriend, Alpert, who was 18 at the time, sent a nude image of her out to more than 70 individuals, including adults. He was charged with transmitting child pornography and for the crime is serving five years of probation for the crime and will be a registered sex offender until he is 43 years old.

It’s usually 12, 13, or 14 year olds took the picture themselves so no one forced them to take the pictures and you’re also looking at somebody possessing pictures of about the same age.”

“We tell them the consequences and we tell them the facts that you’re producing child pornography even though you took this picture yourself and when you send it to somebody you’re transmitting child pornography,” Broughton said. Broughton said there have been a few local cases where young adults have been arrested.

“We’ve had 18, 19, 20-year-olds that have been arrested for possessing child pornography. I don’t know if it would fit in the nice little definition of sexting,” Broughton said. “I don’t know if they did it that way but there is obviously other avenues of getting child pornography.”

Officials say the real solution to stopping sexting is educating teens and parents about the risks.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s “Think Before You Post” campaign was aimed at getting children to think about the practical consequences of sending materials that can be reproduced and end up living on the Internet forever.

“We’ve been harping for the last couple of years about Internet safety. Looking at your child’s computer, finding out who they’re chatting with,” Spector said. “The same principle goes with the cell phone now, (find out) who they’re texting, who they’re sending pictures to and who they’re receiving pictures from.”

While few cases have been reported, Broughton said, according to kids he has talked to, sexting happens all the time.

“They assure me that this is unfortunately a common practice and it occurs on a regular basis,” he said. “It’s just that law enforcement isn’t finding out about it because there is no complaining victim or complaining witness.”

TIPS FOR TEENS

Here are five things to think about before pressing the send button:

• Don’t assume anything you send or post is going to remain private.

• There is no changing your mind in cyberspace — anything you send or post will never truly go away.

• Don’t give in to the pressure to do something that makes you uncomfortable, even in cyberspace.

• Consider the recipient’s reaction.

• Nothing is truly anonymous.

National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy

TIPS FOR PARENTS

Here are five tips to help parents talk to their kids about sex and technology:

• Talk to your kids about what they are doing in cyberspace.

• Know who your kids are communicating with.

• Consider limitations on electronic communication.

• Be aware of what your teens are posting publicly.

• Set expectations

National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy

By Kelly Tyko

Tags: arrest, best, camera, cell, child, children, communication, computer, computers, deputies, deputy, education, exploitation, girl, girlfriend, Internet, kids, mobile, name, offender, orlando, parents, photograph, photos, possession, probation, safety, Schools, sex, sheriff, students, teen, teens, web

This entry was posted on Monday, April 27th, 2009 at 9:14 am and is filed under Crime, Indian River County, Martin County, St. Lucie County. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.