GREENSBURG, PA — Adults aren’t the only ones who can be charged with child pornography offenses, as six teenagers in Greensburg, PA, discovered after sharing nude photos of themselves via their cell phones.According to police reports, two girls aged “14 or 15” messaged the images to two slightly older boys (“16 or 17”). The youthful indiscretion was discovered in October after one of the kids violated Greensburg Salem High School rules by using a cell phone during school hours. The phone was confiscated and searched, then turned over to police when nude and semi-nude images were discovered. In a sort of titillating snowball effect, the discovery led to more searches and more confiscations.
Police arrested the students in mid-January. According to police reports, the girls were charged with “manufacturing, disseminating or possessing child pornography.” The boys were charged with possessing child porn.
The photos included “a self portrait taken of a juvenile female taking pictures of her body, nude,” Greensburg Police Capt. George Seranko told WPXI News. “Taking nude pictures of yourself, nothing good can come out of it.”
After the arrests, the Greensburg Salem School District issued a statement saying “no evidence of inappropriate activity on school grounds or during the school day other than the violation of the [school’s] electronic devices policy” occurred. The district also pledged to step up education about dangers inherent in inappropriate use of communication devices.
“It’s very dangerous,” Seranko told WPXI. “Once [an image is] on a cell phone, that cell phone can be put on the Internet where everyone in the world can get access to that juvenile picture. You don’t realize what you are doing until it’s already done.”
More to the point, perhaps, are two recent studies about children’s safety in a connected world. On January 14th, the Internet Safety Technical Task Force — a group formed at the behest of 49 state attorneys general to address online sexual predation — released a report saying the greatest threat to children’s cyber-safety is other children. In December, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy released survey results indicating 20-percent of all teens have exchanged nude photos electronically. Additionally, 25-percent of teen girls and 33-percent of teen boys surveyed said they had viewed nude images intended for someone else.
