When sending text messages goes wrong, it can lead to big trouble.
Allen County Attorney Wade Bowie, assistant county attorney Chris Phelan and Iola Police Department’s community resource officer Mike Ford were at Iola Middle School last week teaching about 270 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders not just about the physical dangers that come along with sending and receiving lewd text messages, but legal consequences as well.
“There may be a problem with inappropriate pictures and messages being forwarded back and forth between middle school kids,” Bowie said of what led to the activity. “Our message was to educate them and let them know it’s a violation of the law — because I’m sure a lot of them don’t know.”
During their time with the students, the law enforcers explained what constituted sexting — a term applied to the act of sending sexually explicit electronic messages via cell phones, computers or any other electronic communication — and how that activity can turn into an illegal one, Ford said.
“If a nude photo of any person under 18 is transmitted, it is child pornography,” he said. “Even if a 14-year-old girl takes a picture of herself on her phone — right then, she is in possession of child pornography.
“If she transmits that to somebody like a boyfriend, then that is distribution of child pornography on her part and possession on his part,” Ford added.
And the penalties are hefty. Adults convicted of sexual exploitation of a child — the possession of any visual depiction of a child under 18 shown in sexually explicit conduct — can spend anywhere from two-and-a-half to 11 years behind bars.
“Juveniles would be handled differently under the juvenile offender code,” Bowie said. “It’s still a felony offense.”
AFTER A SURVEY about sexting was administered to each middle school student, it became apparent the majority of the children weren’t aware of what circumstances constituted illegal activity, he said.
Of the 277 students surveyed, 40 percent thought nude photographs of 16- and 17-year-olds weren’t considered child pornography, and 18 students thought subjects in nude photographs must be 10 years old or younger to constitute child pornography.
“The kids didn’t understand what the possible penalties could be or that they could get in trouble for it,” Bowie said.
Bowie, Ford and Phelan told the kids there are other ways to get in trouble with sexting as well.
“It’s not sending it, but it’s requesting it,” Ford said. “If there is a 16-year-old boy that requests his 15- or 16-year-old girlfriend to send him a picture, that is a crime in itself.”
And the charges attached to that act are even stiffer than possessing child pornography. Electronic solicitation — communication conducted through the telephone, Internet or other electronic means to entice or solicit a child to commit a sexual act — is punishable by up to 54 years in prison.
“As a juvenile, they could be removed from their home and placed in a juvenile correction facility, potentially,” Bowie said.
But the real penalty for kids caught sharing nude pictures of themselves or their peers is the requirement to register as a sex offender.
“There are serious consequences, not only now but long-term. There is the possibility for sex offender registration even as a juvenile,” Bowie said. “You could end up on the sex offender web page, and that can affect your ability to move onto college, your ability to get financial aid, it could impact employment opportunities. It has so many long-term consequences.”
Getting rid of child pornography or borderline text messages isn’t as easy as clicking delete.
“A lot of kids think that if they delete it, it’s done and over with. But it can still be pulled up off your phone or computer,” Ford said. “We expressed to the kids that at that point they would need to contact law enforcement if they received something that they believed might fall under child pornography so they don’t get in trouble for that later.”
Once data is on a phone, it’s there forever, he said.
“If you have a phone and you sell it and it’s later involved in a crime — everything is date-sensitive and time-stamped — and we have to go back into that phone for something and find that there is child pornography on it from this date and time, it could come back on them,” he said.
IMS Assistant Principal Leann Kennedy reiterated Bowie and Ford’s sentiments, saying sexting is a problem and the presentation was a good method of informing students about the consequences.
“A lot of that happens and kids are kids so they think nothing is going to happen or it’s not against the law,” she said. “We felt it would be a stronger message coming from the county attorney’s office and local law enforcement than just us telling them that there are repercussions when these things happen.”
According to the survey, 28 of the 277 have received a sext message.
“If we keep one child from making that mistake, I think the presentations were successful,” Kennedy said.
