AU- 'Sexting' lands Queensland man in court

10-10-2008 Australia:

The growing youth culture phenomenon of "sexting" may have claimed its first Queensland scalp, with the appearance of a young man in court this morning.

Twenty-one-year-old excavator driver Mark Anthony Vuzem, of Brisbane, will serve 12 months' probation after he was caught exchanging nude pictures of himself with a 14-year-old girl via a series of "smutty" text messages, which were eventually intercepted by the girl's mother.

Academics and social researchers say the practice of saucy SMS chat, known as sexting, has boomed in recent times, particularly in the schoolyard.

Experts claim the trend is a normal form of adolescent sexual experimentation given, of course, that it is done legally.

In Vuzem's case, a six-year age gap exposed him to criminal charges.

Brisbane's District Court heard a friendship between the pair developed after several months, culminating in the swapping of the naked pictures, including camera phone snaps of the girl's breasts and vagina.

Vuzem responded with similar images of his penis and over eight days, offered to perform oral and other sex acts on the girl "in a doggy position" as part of a reciprocal SMS conversation. The pair also met three times, but went no further than holding hands and pecks on the cheek.

However, the sexting would have continued, prosecutors said, if not for the girl's mother discovering the messages in the youngster's mobile phone and contacting police.

"It's clearly lurid, it's smutty (but) it's a two-way street," Vuzem's defence barrister Stephen Kissick said.

"No doubt a lot of people feel ashamed of text messages they have sent in the past."

Judge Michael Noud said there were no other instances in Queensland case law to guide him in punishing Vuzem, who pleaded guilty to one count each of wilfully exposing a child to an indecent picture and using the internet to expose a child to indecent matter.

"That is not to say the matter is a trivial one," Judge Noud said.

"It isn't. The legislature has made it an offence."

But in a warning to others, Mr Kissick said embarrassing text messages - even when deleted - could be retrieved via call charge records that could be subpoenaed by authorities.

Vuzem will serve 12 months' probation but was spared a criminal conviction. ..News Source.. by Christine Kellett