Adults try to stop overexposed pictures sent to teens via cell phones

3-15-2009 National:

One in five American teenagers likely has sent a nude or semi-naked photo of themselves to someone else via their cell phone, a recent national survey shows.

While some youngsters consider it fun, the issue commonly referred to as "sexting" alarms parents and troubles educators and law enforcement officers, who warn the images are appearing on the Internet and in the hands of predators. They also worry about the long-term impact on teens' futures.

In Knox County police are dealing with an average of two "sexting" cases a week. In some states, youngsters who share the pictures are being charged with child pornography.

School counselors and organizations are trying to curb the problem by educating parents and youths. Teens are also trying to dissuade friends.

"Just about anybody can get ahold of that picture," said Amber Miller, 18, a Fulton High School senior. "It's your reputation. Once you let go of it, it's gone."

Cell-phone consequences

The advent of inexpensive cell phones means parents can keep a closer eye on children during the school day. Students are abusing the technology, however.

"It first started a few years back with their texting the answers to test questions," said Steve Griffin, security chief for Knox County Schools. "It's expanded to them taking pictures of each others' body parts and texting them around."

At Cedar Bluff Middle School, staff recently held an assembly to warn eighth-graders of the inappropriate nature of the behavior.

"We really can't do anything about this" because of privacy issues, said Cedar Bluff counselor Betty Anne Domm. "I do wish parents would take their kids' phones and look at them more closely. That would make me very happy."

Some of the pictures land on social networking pages or on Web sites full of posts with teens' breasts and genitalia. In some instances, the pictures include their faces. The teens seek feedback about their looks.

"We're trying to get the word out ... that this is not an activity they need to be engaged in," said Knoxville Police Department Sgt. Scott Sheppard. "It's child pornography. The way cell phones have evolved, they're miniature computers, and these offenses are significant. We don't want any children tagged as sex offenders for the rest of their lives because they snapped a picture with their cell phone."

Sheppard and other KPD officers make Internet safety presentations to parents and students that address "sexting" and what can happen when such content is sent out.

The department handles at least two cases a week of teens' naked cell phone pictures, Sheppard said, and it's "two too much."

"You're talking about the potential for a child to reach out to other people. ... It's distribution, receipt and possession."

Prosecutors in Vermont and Pennsylvania, for example, have been charging teenagers who send and receive the pictures with child pornography.

In Tennessee, teenagers could be subject to child pornography laws, but prosecution of juvenile cases are always deferred to the state or local officials, said Knoxville Assistant U.S. Attorney Chuck Atchley, coordinator of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide Department of Justice initiative to protect children from online exploitation and abuse.

"When you've got two teens doing that, it sounds more appropriate for counseling than it does prosecution," said Atchley, who prosecutes child pornography cases.



The student perspective

For some teens, sending nude self-portraits "is like a high," said Powell High School senior Devin Harvey, 17. "I think they're doing it because it's not actual sex, so there's less risk for STDs and pregnancies. It's more of a visual stimulation for them."

They don't recognize the behavior's consequences. The pictures can be sent to others besides the intended recipient, said Harvey, who remembers once being spammed with naked photos of a female friend by her ex-boyfriend.

A false sense of privacy is a reason teens send those pictures, said John Suler, a professor at Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.J., who specializes in cyber psychology. He's developed an "online disinhibition effect" theory, which holds that the detachment of the online world makes people do things they would not ordinarily do.

"People often see their cell phone or computer as an extension of their own mind," Suler said, leading them to believe content sent through either medium isn't public.

Students who send such photos show disrespect to themselves and malign other teenagers, said Miller, the Fulton student. "The older generation might think we don't care and we're willing to make fools of ourselves, and that's not true of all of us," she said.

Anecdotal stories about "sexting" prompted the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and CosmoGirl.com to conduct a survey in October.

Results showed 20 percent of teens say they have posted nude or semi-nude pictures or videos of themselves. Most teens sent the content to boyfriends or girlfriends. Half of the teen girls said pressure from a guy is the reason they sent the messages.

The survey's use of "semi-nude" is ambiguous, but Bill Albert, National Campaign chief program officer, said participants understood the term meant "revealing something not ordinarily revealed in public." Respondents were overwhelmingly white.

Since January, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has received 130 reports of child exploitation by cell phones, though not all are related to teens sending nude photos, said John Shehan, director of the exploited child division.

The organization, which operates a cyber tip line, last year began logging cell phone use as it became more prevalent, he said.

"Individuals that have a sexual interest in children, they collect the content and continue to circulate (them)," Shehan said.

His group is working with the Ad Council on a public service announcement to be released in several weeks, addressing the use of cellular devices.

Addressing the problem

Across the state, Memphis City Schools has formed a principals' task force after educators confiscated cell phones with provocative photos.

Last week, the Knox County Council Parent Teacher Association and the Metropolitan Drug Commission hosted a workshop for parents about the topic.

"There are a lot of parents who are slightly naive about what their children are doing with electronics," said Deborah Britt, president of the parent-teacher council and mother of a middle and high school student. "You don't want to monitor (children's) every moment.

"There's a fine line when your children are growing into young adulthood about how much is guiding and how much is spying."

Students' penchant for sending and receiving nude images proves the need for schools to follow a consistent cell phone policy, said Athanasios Bayiates, president of the Knox County Education Association.

The school system's policy - the device must be turned off during the school day - is not applied identically everywhere, he said.

"It puts educators in a difficult position if something were to happen," he said, and they could be blamed.

Ultimately, the responsibility lies with teenagers, said Michaelan Moore, a Webb School of Knoxville senior who recalls the case of a Webb student who sent nude pictures to someone during her freshman year. Those images were passed around to others.

"I've seen her naked, and it's kind of hard to look at her without thinking of that," Michaelan said.

She added: "A little consideration before doing that kind of stuff is definitely necessary. That can come back to haunt you far, far into your future." ..News Source.. by Lola Alapo