Chicago Tribune

The idea behind sexting, or sending a nude picture via a cell phone text, is not so new. Children played doctor long before grade school students were armed with cell phones capable of snapping photos. They just didn't record an image of the offense.

But technology has created a trail of evidence. Children and teens are capturing nude photos or videos of each other and sending them from friend to friend, and that's landing them in court.

"I think there has always been a sort of, you show me yours and I'll show you mine, and a curiosity there," Porter County, Ind., Prosecutor Brian Gensel said. "The problem now is the stakes are so much higher because if a juvenile sends a picture of themselves to someone else, well, that can be disseminated now to the entire world within minutes."

And that's distribution of child pornography, Gensel said.

Last week, two middle school students in Valparaiso, Ind., were caught sending nude pictures of themselves to each other on their cell phones. The students were caught when the 13-year-old girl's cell phone rang in class, and her teacher confiscated it, according to a police report. The girl cried that she would get in trouble because a 12-year-old boy sent her a "dirty picture."

The boy sent the girl a picture of his genitals and requested that she do the same, the report said. The girl then texted him a picture of her naked, police said.

The students have been charged with child exploitation and possession of child pornography, both felonies. They were referred to the county's juvenile probation department, which will determine whether authorities pursue or drop the charges, Gensel said. If convicted, the students could be required to register as sex offenders, he said.

Franklin Middle School Principal Christopher Fields would not say whether the students have been disciplined. He said sexting has been addressed with the student body, but he would not elaborate.

Four percent of cell phone-owning teens 12 to 17 say they've sent nude or nearly nude images or videos of themselves via text, and 15 percent say they've received such images, a recent Pew Research Center survey shows.

In Plainfield last month, a 16-year-old girl took a nude photo of herself and texted it to a male student. The photo spread so quickly that some of the original senders told police they had received it from others.

Illinois legislation is pending to make it illegal to upload on the Internet or disseminate a video of someone without their consent or with the intent to cause harm. An Ohio program requires juveniles charged in sexting cases to relinquish their cell phones and attend classes on the legal and emotional consequences of sexting, according to the Montgomery County prosecutor's office.

Louis Kraus, head of child and adolescent psychiatry at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, said teens who sext don't understand the consequences of their actions.

The brain isn't fully developed until people reach their mid-20s, and that makes teens impulsive, Kraus said. Boys sext because they're proud of their new, more mature bodies, while girls sext because a boy asks them to, he said. Girls want to develop the relationship and think sexting will help, Kraus said. But he warns that's no different than a girl who might be pressured into sex before she's ready.

Middle school, when kids develop stronger sexual feelings and strive to fit in, can be especially grueling, Kraus said.

"On one level (sending nude pictures) is safer than physical intimacy … but on another level it is taking a risk and being taken advantage of that has a level of shame that is striking," Kraus said.