Girl, 15, Faces Porn Charges For Sexting

(CBS/AP)  A 15-year-old girl from central Pennsylvania faces child pornography charges after police say she sent nude pictures of herself over the Internet.

Clearfield County District Attorney William Shaw says the girl has been charged as a juvenile with possessing, distributing and creating child pornography.

The girl is living with her mother. Authorities say the girl sent the pictures after communicating in June 2007 with a 27-year-old man over the MySpace networking Web site.

The practice has been called "sexting" for the prevalence of teens to transmit images via a cell phone.

Shaw says the man has also been charged with unlawful sexual activity. State police found the images on the man's computer.

The case is similar to a situation in a Wisconsin high school, where a student forwarded a sexually explicit picture of his ex-girlfriend to 100 or more classmates.

Capt. Mark Stigler said police are pursuing possible felony child pornography charges against the teens who distributed the photo.

Police and school officials in Waukesha are warning parents to check their children's cell phones, making sure any such images are deleted.

Principal Melissa Thompson of Waukesha High School told CBS News correspondent Kelli Watson, "Kids really need to know and understand that their digital footprint will live on."

Last month, police in Greenburg, Pa., said three girls ages 14 to 15 allegedly sent nude or semi-nude cell phone pictures of themselves to three male classmates. All six face charges of manufacturing, disseminating or possessing child pornography.

Roughly 20 percent of teens admit to participating in sexting, according to a nationwide survey by the National Campaign to Support Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

"This is a serious felony. They could be facing many years in prison," CBS News legal analyst Lisa Bloom said of the six Pennsylvania teenagers.

But, Bloom added, "What are we going to do, lock up 20 percent of America's teens?"

[CatholicMom]

First I'd like to take issue with the comment from kuching88, did you make up that quote by George Washington? Fact: By the way, did you know that the Continental Congress called for a day of fasting and prayer within the colonies, beseeching God to give guidance and direction as to whether they should secede from England before the representatives to the Continental Congress. Fact 2 Patrick Henry, the great orator who said on the flooIt cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians, not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ! For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship herer of the House of Burgesses in Virginia, "Give me liberty or give me death. Fact 3 George Washington, the father of our nation said, "It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible." These are documented truths not liberal distortions.

Now as for porn texting there has been a definate causal link between porn and serial killers by professional psychiatrists as well as the most famous serial killer himself Ted Bundy who said the following in an interview on death row: ?This is the message I want to get across ? that as a young boy ? certainly I encountered in the local grocery store, in the local drug store, the porn that people call ?soft core." As he grew older, Ted Bundy said his obsession drove him to mutilate and murder young women for sexual gratification. ?In the beginning it fuels this kind of thought process. Then, at a certain time, it is instrumental, I would say crystalizing, making it into something that is almost like a separate entity inside, a building up of this destructive energy. You keep craving harder porn.? so its NOT Religion that is poisoning America....it is pornography. Sadly I see no respite in the short term in fighting pornography in America as Obama's no 2 man at justice is a former lawyer for the pornography industry .

A bio on David Ogden:
He opposed the Children?s Internet Protection Act of 2000 as counsel of record for an amicus brief supporting the American Library Association in a case that challenged mandatory anti-obscenity internet filters in public libraries.

In the 1986 case American Council for the Blind v. Boorstin, he successfully sought a court order forcing the Library of Congress to use taxpayer funds to print Playboy Magazine?s articles in Braille.

Ogden also successfully challenged laws requiring pornography producers to personally verify that models were over 18 at the time their materials were made. According to the Fidelis brief, he argued that the decision would ?burden too heavily and infringe too deeply on the right to produce First Amendment protected material.?

We decent parents have an uphill battle in the fight against porn let us be vigilant in protecting our children against porn and put pressure on our politicians to do so, It all Begins with us!

Catholic Mom

[TSzg]

"There is a solution to the SEXTING epidemic. One of the problems is that parents have NO VISIBILITY as to what their children are doing with their cell phones. Parents can't protect their kids if they don't know what is going on. The solution for this is a new software application for children's cell phones called My Mobile Watchdog and this allows parents to monitor all activity going in and out of a child's phone including photos and text messages. Their website is www.mymobilewatchdog.com. Every parent must be involved in what their child is doing on their cell phone so that tragedies like we've seen recently never happen!"

[sjjjonesdeashea]

My son was 17 when he got in trouble for this, he took a picture of a girl at a party who was 16. The picture did not go anywhere because he deleted it. Because of another thing that happened at the party with someone else and the same girl, the picture was talked about. It took 3 years for this to come to a some what end. He was charged with child endangerment, is on 5 years probation and must go to group once a week for sexual offenders. He will have a felony on is record for the rest of his life.

[anothernwmom]

when my son finished the K-6 program at our Catholic School, his only alternative was to transition into the public school or be home-schooled. While I knew he had been sheltered, was raised in and active in our church, was moving into a different "culture," was a 4.0 student who had skipped grades (is graduating college now at 19), was a shockingly hard worker who I never had to push (self-driven) and, to top it off, is handsome, I thought he would be fine in the public school, and for the most part, he was. However, within the first three months, the girl-thing was overwhelming. One girl, from the high school, rode the bus from her open campus to his school to see him, invite him to this or that. He wasn't allowed to date. I couldn't figure out why she was allowed to skip classes and walk into the junior high to bug my son. Girls called my home constantly. He would usually sigh, roll his eyes and tell me to tell them he wasn't home. And then the naked pictures began. One girl gave him a memory stick that had pictures of naked girls in his class. When he shared it with me, I was shocked. Within one week, he was given three memory sticks with most of that class of girls naked. Initially, I didn't want to rock the boat as we were the new people in the school. But by the end of the week, I went to the principal. The response I got was "what did he do to cause these girls to give him these photos." I was stunned. He did accept the memory sticks; that was the error. And he did given them to me. That weekend, I called parents. That got me hang-up's. Quite frankly, going from a world of Mass every Friday, prayers every morning, and respect/virtues being taught at every instance to this new world was quite unsettling. I had no idea girls were doing this. I'm an older mom and grew up in a very different world. What finally happened? My son blew it. One day, he went to school and while standing in a circle of young people, he flicked the back bra strap of one of the girls who had sent him naked photos. The principal was walking by at that moment. He was immediately "grabbed" ... hauled into the office...the police were called...he was charged with harassment but left in the school. He was then kept locked up in what they call a disciplinary closet where his food was given to him through a hole in the door and books were brought in for him to study.

I removed him from the school.

[vtcarguy]

I have an 18 y/o daughter and certainly understand the morality issues associated with this topic. I do believe however that had this girl sent a picture of herself wearing a bikini to her friend instead of a picture of her in her bra and underwear that NOBODY would have said a word !! Is there there a difference ??

[mathttr]

Officials could just as easily create a law making it illegal to use your left hand for anything, and anyone using their left hand or even exposing it in public could be arrested. My grandmother always thought I was using the wrong hand to eat, but I am left handed.

Doesn't law enforcement have anything better to do? They enforce laws where no one is injured. To me, the violent "entertainment" on TV is much more offensive.

[matrixrx2003]

Let''s check Mark Foley''s and Ted Haggard''s cell phones.

Posted by niceface19

Thoes would be pictures of Men or Boys on Mark Foleys & Ted Haggard not a 15 year old girl with no clothes on.

Mark & Ted swim in the other pond.

[niceface19]

Let's check Mark Foley's and Ted Haggard's cell phones.

[tomanyt]

Teens are all hormones and no brains. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Posted by rsmik....So are adults.

[observer2020]

Read the article. The dude is being charged along with her. Raises the question of what if he never asked her for the nude pictures.
Posted by shanev137
I can see the writing on the wall...someone gets mad at another and sends them a dirty picture...the person receiving it and didn't want it in the first place is also getting in trouble, which is what the angry person wanted in the first place. This should be the only people getting in trouble are the senders not the receivers (unless they send it out, then trouble for them too).