Anne Bubnic's List: Digital Citizenship/Sexting

• The full extent of sexting has not been quantified, but a survey by a teenage girls' magazine found 40 per cent of respondents had been asked to send sexual images of themselves.
• Police say sexting rates are already high, while Kids Help Line says nearly half their bullying-related calls can be attributed to cyber-bullying.

• etective Sergeant Campbell Davis, of the Victoria Police internet child exploitation team, said girls were especially targeted, and the third-generation of mobile phone technology, or 3G, which can send large image files straight to the internet, was exacerbating the problem.

   

  "It is a very powerful technology and we need to teach our children how quickly images can be forwarded," he said.

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• As soon as there's a new technology, it's used for sex," says Sarah Jacobs, curator of the Museum of Sex in Manhattan, which explains why people of all ages and persuasions send out naked pictures via cell phone, Craigslist and MySpace and post their sex videos on sites like YouPorn.
• In the past six months alone, there's been a deluge of news stories about middle- and high-school students getting into trouble for sending around naked pictures and sex videos of themselves or classmates. The disposition of the cases has been wildly disparate: Some kids are arrested, some punished at school and others are lectured about online safety.

• The were charged with possession of material harmful to minors, according to the Birmingham Press-Register. 

  Landon wrote that electronic transmission, or receipt of sexually explicit or pornographic material in which students are engaged "when discovered, will be addressed through the criminal justice system."

• The prosecution looked like an error right out of the gate.  The photo didn't show sexual activity or genitalia, and even the sheriff's office conceded it was "inappropriate" but not "criminal" -- making it unclear what the "child abuse" was supposed to be. In any event, as a matter of law, Oei was only required to report suspected abuse to his principal, which he'd done.  It was then Forester's job to report it to authorities if needed. Oei said Forester didn't step in to defend him to authorities. (Forester didn't return phone calls for this story)
• Four months later, Plowman charged Oei with two more misdemeanor counts for contributing to the delinquency of a minor, claiming Oei broke the law when he had the 16-year-old boy send the photo to his cell phone and advise him on how to then forward it to his desktop computer. Each count added another year to his possible prison term. "The December charges really felt like piling on," Oei says.

• Phillip Alpert found out the hard way. He had just turned 18 when he sent a naked photo of his 16-year-old girlfriend, a photo she had taken and sent him, to dozens of her friends and family after an argumen
• t was a stupid thing I did because I was upset and tired and it was the middle of the night and I was an immature kid," says Alpert.
• Orlando, Florida, police didn't see it that way. Alpert was arrested and charged with sending child pornography, a felony to which he pleaded no contest but was later convicted. He was sentenced to five years probation and required by Florida law to register as a sex offender.

• Rather than force her daughter to take the classes, which would have required she write a report explaining why what she did was wrong, Miller and two other families ­-- with the help of the ACLU -- are suing the district attorney to stop him from filing charges. "We believe she was the victim and that she did nothing wrong," says Miller. "How can I ask her to compromise her values and write this essay, when she didn't do anything?"

  Although the district attorney maintains the program is voluntary, the letter he sent to parents notes, "Charges will be filed against those who do not participate." Seventeen of the 20 students caught in the sexting incidents have completed the 14 hours of classes.
• Last year, Jessica Logan, a Cincinnati, Ohio, teen, hanged herself after her nude photo, meant for her boyfriend, was sent to teenagers at several high schools
• No charges had been filed against Jessica's 19-year-old boyfriend, who disseminated the photo, nor had the school taken any action, Logan says. He says he and his wife want to warn parents and students of the dangers of sexting. The Logans are fighting to raise awareness nationally and to advocate for laws that address sexting and cyber-bullying.

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• The issue at hand is "sexting," a trend that involves teens taking risqué cell phone photos of themselves or friends and then transmitting them to other acquaintances. Some parents and adolescent experts say it's just teenagers doing the stupid things that teenagers do to flirt with or harass each other. But some prosecutors worry about the images falling into the hands of potential predators and they've brought child pornography and other charges against those involved.
• But even though a cursory Web search reveals other recent sexting cases in Vermont, Indiana, Wisconsin and California, among other places, not everyone is aware of the practice just yet, or has an opinion on whether it's a criminal offense.