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[Cloyster]

The people who may have coerced them into doing it. If a 30-year-old does it it's grooming, but if an 18-year-old does it to a 13-year-old it's not? I don't buy it. Seniors come from a place of power in schools like that, especially sports team seniors in sports-focused schools.

Why does it have to be grooming and coercing?

This sounds like it was a really well-known popular thing that students just willingly wanted to get in on. I'm not saying a 12-13 year old student wasn't forced or tricked into doing it, with peer pressure or whatever, but that's not the only explanation.

Also, I don't see anything that says anyone is 18 or older.

 

[TheOnlyOneHeEverFeared]

Very difficult.

If a 12 year old willingly put their own nude photos into a huge sexting ring of hundreds and hundreds of minor students, who do you punish?

Well I don't know. The over 18's maybe. Hence my 'sort it out' rather than 'lock them up'
Context is king though.

 

[Cloyster]

Well I don't know. The over 18's maybe. Hence my 'sort it out' rather than 'lock them up'
Context is king though.

No one involved is over 18, if what the article implies is correct.

 

[Beartruck]

This is literally a major plotline from DeGrassi.

Truth is stranger than fiction I suppose.

 

[hodayathink]

Very difficult.

If a 12 year old willingly put their own nude photos into a huge sexting ring of hundreds and hundreds of minor students, who do you punish?

I seriously doubt that most of the girls put their pictures into this ring willingly. It seems like the guys sent nudes to the girls fishing to get nudes in return, and would place them into the ring when they did.

Another quote from the article:

Another mother, Lisa Graham, 46, said her daughter, now a junior at the high school, had been “propositioned by multiple guys” during her freshman year. “She received unsolicited photos from guys, which she immediately deleted,” Ms. Graham said by telephone. “I’m frustrated if people knew and didn’t shut it down three years ago.”

 

[Stet]

Why does it have to be grooming and coercing?

This sounds like it was a really well-known popular thing that students just willingly wanted to get in on. I'm not saying a 12-13 year old student wasn't forced or tricked into doing it, with peer pressure or whatever, but that's not the only explanation.

Also, I don't see anything that says anyone is 18 or older.

What evidence makes it sound like that?

 

[njean777]

Who cares it's just pictures of a naked human body ffs.

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

Very difficult.

If a 12 year old willingly put their own nude photos into a huge sexting ring of hundreds and hundreds of minor students, who do you punish?

Do we know that they willing put their photos in the ring?

Sounds more like people were sending pics to a member of the football team, and that member shared with other members of the team. x 100

 

[ZeroGravity]

Do sex ed classes address the issue of sexting at all these days? If not, that really needs to be a vital part of the curriculum going forward.

 

[Konka]

The people who may have coerced them into doing it. If a 30-year-old does it it's grooming, but if an 18-year-old does it to a 13-year-old it's not? I don't buy it. Seniors come from a place of power in schools like that, especially sports team seniors in sports-focused schools.

What if it's a 13 year old and a 13 year old? Or a 14 year old and a 15 year old? Defining what should be a crime in situations like this is difficult and prosecuting often isn't going to help anyone.

 

[Cloyster]

Do we know that they willing put their photos in the ring?

Sounds more like people were sending pics to a member of the football team, and that member shared with other members of the team. x 100

What evidence makes it sound like that?

I seriously doubt that most of the girls put their pictures into this ring willingly. It seems like the guys sent nudes to the girls fishing to get nudes in return, and would place them into the ring when they did.

Another quote from the article:

Yeah, that doesn't sound good. Nevermind then.

 

[entremet]

Do sex ed classes address the issue of sexting at all these days? If not, that really needs to be a vital part of the curriculum going forward.

Not in Colorado public schools at least, according to the article.

An administrator mentioned they were unprepared how to deal with the issue.

 

[Cloyster]

Do we know that they willing put their photos in the ring?

Sounds more like people were sending pics to a member of the football team, and that member shared with other members of the team. x 100

I may not be thinking logically, but can that method allow for there to be equal numbers of boys and girls, as the article says?

 

[Calvero]

I seriously doubt that most of the girls put their pictures into this ring willingly. It seems like the guys sent nudes to the girls fishing to get nudes in return, and would place them into the ring when they did.

Another quote from the article:

but there's also this:

Mr. Welsh said a significant percentage of the student body at Cañon City High School had participated, with boys and girls involved in seemingly equal numbers.

does this mean that there was roughly an even number of photos of both sexes?

 

[IAmRandom31]

Who cares it's just pictures of a naked human body ffs.

these are kids we are talking about here. Middle school girls like 12-14 years old and shit.

I know anyone with a daughter would " care "

or anyone with common decency

 

[Symphonia]

If it happened on school property, it's the fault of the school.

You expect the school to monitor the usage of 100+ students mobile phones?

 

[TimeEffect]

Sexting is by definition distributing the photos.

Not really.

This is a consent issue: You trade pics with a girl/boy, that's whatever. But then showing your friends those pics and distributing them?

That's a big no no.

And that should be punishable.

Better yet, schools need to cut these kids to the punch and educate students and sexting and the law. Teens share pics and some engage in revenge porn. That's incredibly wrong.

 

[Count Dookkake]

Nudity shouldn't be considered porn.

 

[The Llama]

Not really.

This is a consent issue: You trade pics with a girl/boy, that's whatever. But then showing your friends those pics and distributing them?

That's a big no no.

And that should be punishable.

Better yet, schools need to cut these kids to the punch and educate students and sexting and the law. Teens share pics and some engage in revenge porn. That's incredibly wrong.

Legally, even the initial boy/girl trade is illegal as well.

 

[Konka]

Not really.

This is a consent issue: You trade pics with a girl/boy, that's whatever. But then showing your friends those pics and distributing them?

That's a big no no.

And that should be punishable.

Better yet, schools need to cut these kids to the punch and educate students and sexting and the law. Teens share pics and some engage in revenge porn. That's incredibly wrong.

That's not how the law works. They've charged minors with producing and distributing child porn for doing what you say is "whatever".

 

[Tesseract]

cue am i out of touch skinner

 

[Hatchtag]

There really needs to be better laws about this stuff. It's terrible that there's a huge sexting ring at a school, and instead of focusing on privacy and respect like they should be, they're going to have to focus on not having every student become a registered sex offender because they took a picture of something they can legally see anyways.

Like in a lot of states there's a 2-5 year buffer on having sex with someone under the age of consent, which makes sense because that sort of thing is going to happen, isn't really wrong, and helps the law do only what it intends to do. There needs to be a similar buffer on this sort of thing.

 

[BreezyLimbo]

I have a question ...if you sext when youre like, 16, what happens if you keep the picture and any shared after youre 18? If 5 years after youre outta high school you find the picture again?

...my point being is there is no internal switch that will cause these kids to automatically delete the photos when they turn 18..so if a kid for instance, at 20 finds some old sexting pictures, does that make him guilty of having child pornography?

Its a messy situation, thats for sure. Over 100 teens and over hundreds of pictures...sheesh.

 

[Ashhong]

Jesus, even 8th graders? I am scared of what kids will be like when I have one in high school

I have a question ...if you sext when youre like, 16, what happens if you keep the picture and any shared after youre 18?

...my point being is there is no internal switch that will cause these kids to automatically delete the photos when they turn 18..

Its a messy situation, thats for sure. Over 100 teens and over hundreds of pictures...sheesh.

It depends on what the age is of the person sharing it. If they sexted it today to an 18 year old in high school and he shares it, that's distribution.

 

[TimeEffect]

Legally, even the initial boy/girl trade is illegal as well.

Yeah, but let's face it, a lot of teens share pics of each other. That is privately done between two people. You wouldn't punish them for having sex, so it makes no sense to seriously punish them for sending nude snaps to each other.

The key here is educating students in sex ed class: letting them know that being pressured and pressuring for nudes is not cool, that sharing pictures is against the law and that it gives you a criminal record, that there is always a risk with pictures shared on the web, etc.

Of course, teen hormones are going to override everything else here, and they will continue to share pics. But a lot of these kids simply don't understand the law, or understand that a good boyfriend wouldn't pressure for nudes, etc.

 

[Cloyster]

I have a question ...if you sext when youre like, 16, what happens if you keep the picture and any shared after youre 18? If 5 years after youre outta high school you find the picture again?

...my point being is there is no internal switch that will cause these kids to automatically delete the photos when they turn 18..so if a kid for instance, at 20 finds some old sexting pictures, does that make him guilty of having child pornography?

Its a messy situation, thats for sure. Over 100 teens and over hundreds of pictures...sheesh.

Similar thought. You have a drug when its legal, its then made illegal, but you forgot you had it stashed, and you still had it. Doesn't make it legal.

Not saying this is how I feel, just how the law works.

 

[Gordon Shumway]

Crazy. I remember the first time I saw pussy. It was in the 3rd grade, and my friend Javier brought a Polaroid of his brother's girlfriend (they where in middle school at the time) getting DPed..that was in the 80s. Times are a changing..

 

[BreezyLimbo]

Similar thought. You have a drug when its legal, its then made illegal, but you forgot you had it stashed, and you still had it. Doesn't make it legal.

Not saying this is how I feel, just how the law works.

Yeah, I think alot of people are passing this line of thought over. Hundreds of pictures involving hundreds of students is alot more problematic than a couple trading pictures. Those pictures end up somewhere outside of this ring...and I can see why action needs to be taken against sextingg like this. The potential to ruin someones life is huge..

But like I said, a sexting ring of this size is much different then a couple trading pictures. To equate the two is fallacious.

 

[Gallbaro]

What next? Kids in suburbia doing drugs?!

 

[Violet_0]

the big issue - well, one of the big issues - is that coercion likely was involved in some cases. They can't and shouldn't charge everyone, but they still need to investigate and find the main "culprits". I don't believe the situation is as innocent/harmless as some here seem to think

 

[old manatee]

Man kids are so fucking cool now. Swapping pornography and giving each other prostate orgasms and shit. When I was a kid we just chain-smoked cigarettes and listened to punk rock.

 

[Snaku]

What next? Kids in suburbia doing drugs?!

Well it is Colorado.

 

[Brakke]

Weird case. It's the sort of thing where I'd be shrugging "who cares" if this was just kids sexting but because it's blown out to this like industrial scale it starts to become a different thing. What a nightmare for the prosecutors...

It's semantics.

Semantics is "meaning". In lots of domains, and certainly in law, semantics is of paramount importance.

 

[Ryouji Gunblade]

The whole point of laws is to prevent abuse. But if there is no actual abuse... it isn't such a crime anymore.

 

[captive]

please please someone tell me someone at the DA's office has a brain.

You can't arrest some and not all. And they shouldn't be arresting any of them.

 

[Sun Bather]

these are kids we are talking about here. Middle school girls like 12-14 years old and shit.

I know anyone with a daughter would " care "

or anyone with common decency

Yep. Something certainly needs to be done about that. But putting them on sex offender lists and such is probably not the right thing, which happens too often with kids being dumb ass kids. It's hard to decide what really is the right thing to do though.

 

[hodayathink]

but there's also this:



does this mean that there was roughly an even number of photos of both sexes?

If I had to guess based on the article, I'd say there was an even number of both sexes, but again, the guys sent them out very freely to try to get the girls to respond. And truthfully, I wouldn't be surprised if there were a female or two involved in this as well, applying the same wide-area tactic for guys.

 

[Konka]

If I had to guess based on the article, I'd say there was an even number of both sexes, but again, the guys sent them out very freely to try to get the girls to respond. And truthfully, I wouldn't be surprised if there were a female or two involved in this as well, applying the same wide-area tactic for guys.

It's a bunch of horny high school kids trying to see their classmates naked. Ruining peoples lives over something like this would be terrible for all parties.

 

[Brakke]

please please someone tell me someone at the DA's office has a brain.

You can't arrest some and not all. And they shouldn't be arresting any of them.

Of course you can arrest some but not all. We're talking about hundreds of people, surely some of them engaged with this cache in different ways.

 

[hodayathink]

please please someone tell me someone at the DA's office has a brain.

You can't arrest some and not all. And they shouldn't be arresting any of them.

If you had someone taking pictures sent to them and sending them to dozens or even hundreds of other people, I don't think I agree that they shouldn't be arrested. Whether they were underage or not. As has been said in this thread, I know the law doesn't make a distinction, but the prosecutor sure can.

 

[entremet]

please please someone tell me someone at the DA's office has a brain.

You can't arrest some and not all. And they shouldn't be arresting any of them.

I don't think anything will happen.

The town censured itself in a way by forfeiting their the final football game of the season.

If charged and convicted they would be registered sex offenders--good bye at getting most jobs.

 

[ClosingADoor]

If people sent in their photos willingly, they should get some lessons about why that stuff is bad and can come back to hunt you.

If photos were sent without consent, the people doing the sending should at least get to do some community service and stuff like that. Putting kids on sex offender lists for life for this seems too much.

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

Yeah, I think alot of people are passing this line of thought over. Hundreds of pictures involving hundreds of students is alot more problematic than a couple trading pictures. Those pictures end up somewhere outside of this ring...and I can see why action needs to be taken against sextingg like this. The potential to ruin someones life is huge..

But like I said, a sexting ring of this size is much different then a couple trading pictures. To equate the two is fallacious.

How do you resolve this other than telling kids "don't send nudes", arresting them, or punishing them with detention/suspension? And yes, sharing hundreds of nude photos is definitely different than possessing photos of just one person you're in a relationship with, but you can't selectively prosecute based on that semantic. Either teens sharing nudes is illegal, or it isn't. Coming down hard on just the boys, for example, would be ridiculous and sexist, since it seems half the kids with photos circulating were guys. If I'm a parent and some other parent insists on dragging my kid into court for having their photos, I'm dragging their kid into court for sending them.

The only people outraged by this are 40+. This is how teens use phones now. Don't want your kids sexting? Don't buy them a phone.

Best idea is to decriminalization for people under the age of 18. Of course the parents would never allow that, because the idea that teenagers could have healthy and private sex lives is un-American.

 

[Konka]

How do you resolve this other than telling kids "don't send nudes", arresting them, or punishing them with detention/suspension? And yes, sharing hundreds of nude photos is definitely different than possessing photos of just one person you're in a relationship with, but you can't selectively prosecute based on that semantic. Either teens sharing nudes is illegal, or it isn't. Coming down hard on just the boys, for example, would be ridiculous and sexist, since it seems half the kids with photos circulating were guys. If I'm a parent and some other parent insists on dragging my kid into court for having their photos, I'm dragging their kid into court for sending them.

The only people outraged by this are 40+. This is how teens use phones now. Don't want your kids sexting? Don't buy them a phone.

Best idea is to decriminalization for people under the age of 18. Of course the parents would never allow that, because the idea that teenagers could have healthy and private sex lives is un-American.

Yeah and then I'm telling the prosecutor to take everyone down for producing them.

 

[Vhalyar]

Side topic, but how come the parents of the football players got their own meeting separate from everyone else's.

 

[Gallbaro]

Side topic, but how come the parents of the football players got their own meeting separate from everyone else's.

Football!!!!

 

[Sapiens]

Side topic, but how come the parents of the football players got their own meeting separate from everyone else's.

Do you really have to ask? Football players in small towns are royalty.

 

[shoreu]

Duhh this is happening everywhere.

 

[Kyoufu]

before smartphones, people fucked, but they didn't carry nude photographs of themselves and others around

Because they couldn't. Now they can. What's your point?

 

[entremet]

Do you really have to ask? Football players in small towns are royalty.

This blew my mind until I watched Friday Night Lights.