Transcript Internet Safety: Keeping Youth Safe Online

Sexting
Nancy V. Gifford
Special Counsel
iKeepSafe.org
Sexting – What is it?
Generally defined as youth writing sexually explicit
messages, taking sexually explicit photos of themselves
or others in their peer group, and sending those photos
and/or messages to their peers via digital media (cell
phone, computers, etc.).
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Policy Statement on Sexting (September 21, 2009)
http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/NewsEventServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=4130
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Other terms to consider
“Self Produced Child Pornography”
– Mary G. Leary
Catholic University School of Law
“Youth Produced Sexual Images”
-- Janis Wolak & David Finkelhor
Crimes Against Children Research Center
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Sexting – A typology
1.
Experimental
A.
B.
C.
Romantic
Sexual Attention Seeking
Other
2. Aggravated
A.
B.
C.
Adult Involved
Youth – w/ Intent to Harm
Youth – Reckless
Janis Wolak & David Finkelhor, Sexting: A Typology, Crimes Against Children Research
Center, March 2011
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Sexting – What it isn’t
A minor sending a sexually explicit photograph of
him/herself to an adult.
An adult sending a sexually explicit photograph to a
minor.
A minor being blackmailed or coerced by an adult or a
peer to make a sexually suggestive photo
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Policy Statement on Sexting (September 21,
2009)
http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/NewsEventServlet?LanguageCountry=en_U
S&PageId=4130
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Technology Used For Sexting
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Cell phones
Computers
Web cams
Digital cameras
Video game systems
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7/21/2015
Teens Use of Technology
Cell phone
Sent text message
Games
Facebook
Internet for schoolwork
Email
Used cell phone at school
Instant messaging
Took picture w/ cell
82.9%
78.3%
51.6%
49.8%
49.4%
45.9%
45.4%
40.8%
39.6%
Sameer Hinduja & Justin Patchin, www.cyberbullying.us, Cyberbullying Research
Center (2010)
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Teens Use of Technology (Cont.)
Online games
MySpace
Gone online w/ cell phone
Chat rooms
Webcam
YouTube
Twitter
Virtual Worlds (for ex. Second Life)
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38.7%
37.6%
31.6%
17.1%
14.5%
11.1%
6.0%
5.9%
Percentage of Teens Who Own A
Cell Phone By Age:
Age
Percentage
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58%
13
73%
14
76%
15
79%
16
82%
17
83%
Pew Internet & American Unit Project (Sept. 2009)
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How Prevalent Is Sexting?
The Cox Communications Teen Online & Wireless
Safety Survey, in partnership w/ NCMEC, surveyed
655 teens b/w ages of 13 to 18.7 years
 9 percent said they had sent sexts
 19 percent had received sexts
Girls were twice as likely as boys to have sent sexts.
Among those who sent messages, 60 percent sent
them to a boyfriend or girlfriend; 11 percent sent
them to someone they did not know.
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How Prevalent Is Sexting?
The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned
Pregnancy, in partnership with Cosmogirl.com,
 online survey with 653 teens aged 13 to 19 and 627 young
adults aged 20 to 26.
 When sexting was defined as sending a sexually suggestive
message, 38 percent of the teens said they had sent sexts
 When defined as sending nude or semi-nude photos, 19 percent
of teens said they had sent sexts.
 Among the young adults surveyed, 58 percent had sent
sexually suggestive messages, and 32 percent had sent nude or
semi-nude photos
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How Prevalent Is Sexting?
The MTV-Associated Press (AP) conducted an online
survey of 1,247 teens & young adults between ages 14
and 24.
Among young adults (ages 18 to 24), 33 percent had been
involved in some type of naked sexting
Among teens (ages 14 to 17), 10 percent had shared a
naked image of themselves
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How Prevalent Is Sexting?
The Pew Internet and American Life Project, in partnership with the
University of Michigan, conducted telephone surveys with 800 youths
aged 12 to 17. The survey required parental consent to participate and
it took more than 135,000 calls before finding 800 participants.
Only 4% of cell-owning teens ages 12-17 had sent sexually suggestive
nude or nearly nude images or videos of themselves to someone else
via text.
About 15% had received such images of someone they knew
Lenhart, A. (December 19, 2009) Teens and Sexting. Pew Internet and American Life Project.
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1440/teens-sexting-text-messages.
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How Prevalent Is Sexting
 Study Released on 4/18/11
 Sampled 4400 students ages 10 – 18 using an
electronic survey in a school computer lab.
 Sending Sext: 8.2% of Males and 7.2% of Females
 Receiving Sext: 15.9% of Males; 9.9% of Females
http://cyberbullying.us/blog/sexting-research-and-gender-differences.html
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Differences In The Survey Results:
The higher prevalence indicated in the Cox survey may be
attributable to the broad definition used for the term sexting.
In the MTV and the National Campaign and Cyberbullying
surveys were conducted online and had older teens and young
adults included
The Pew’s lower statistics might be attributable to the younger
targeted age range and to the sample set used because twothirds of the youth interviews were conducted via land lines.
In addition, the Pew’s study focused on images sent via text
while the other surveys talked about sharing, posting or
sending images without limiting the medium used.
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Sexting, Gender & Age
The Pew survey revealed no difference in this practice
related to gender. The Cox survey, however,
suggested that girls are more likely to send a sext.
The Cyberbullying survey suggests that boys are
more likely to receive a sext.
The Pew survey as well as the other surveys suggest
that older teens are the most likely to report having
sent a sexually suggestive image via text with 8% of
17-year-olds having sent one, compared to 4% of
those age 12.
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Sexting & Adults
Do as I say not as I do….
 6% have sent sexts
 13% of 18-29 have sent
 5% of 30-49 have sent
 15% have received
 31% of 18-29 have received
 17% of 30-49 have received sexts

Pew Internet & American Unit Project (Sept. 2009)
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7/21/2015
Reasons Youth Participate In Sexting
Three main situations in which sexting occurs:
 Exchange of images between two people who are in
a relationship (e.g. as part of dating)
 Exchanges between people who are not yet in a
relationship, but at least one person hopes to be
(e.g. flirting)
 Exchanges between partners that are shared with
others outside the relationship (with or without the
consent of the minors depicted).
Lenhart, A. (December 19, 2009) Teens and Sexting. Pew Internet
and American Life Project.
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1440/teens-sexting-textmessages
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Who Do Youth Send Sexts to?

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Boyfriend / Girlfriend
Someone I had a crush on
Ex-boyfriend/ Ex-girlfriend
Best friend
Friends other than my/their best friend
Someone I don’t know
Classmates
Someone else
Decline to answer
I don’t know
60%
21%
19%
14%
18%
11%
4%
14%
3%
2%
*Teen Online & Wireless Safety Survey: Cyberbullying, Sexting and Parental
Controls. Cox Communications Teen Online and Wireless Safety Survey in
Partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 2009
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Sexting: Experimental
1.
Romantic: juveniles in an ongoing relationship made images
for themselves and their partner, without intent to distribute
2.
Example: 14 y/o boy and a 12 y/o girl who were in a relationship
sent sexual pictures and videos to one another. When
discovered by girl’s parent, told School Resource Officer and
wanted boy prosecuted. When learned of daughter’s images,
wanted daughter prosecuted, too. Both rec’d 20 hours of
community service in juvenile court.
Janis Wolak & David Finkelhor, Sexting: A Typology, Crimes Against Children Research Center,
March 2011
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Sexting: Experimental
Sexual Attention Seeking: images sent among youth who were not romantic
partners or posted online for attention
Example: 13 year old received a photo of a friend’s penis. Father found image
and contact school. Both boy and girl stated the photo was sent during a late
night series of texts and was intended to be “funny.” No charges brought.
Example: a 14 year old girl in NJ faced child porn charges and potential sex
offender registration after posting 30 nude photos of herself on MySpace.
Actually received six months of counseling and probation and if she stays out
of trouble the charges will be dropped
Janis Wolak & David Finkelhor, Sexting: A Typology, Crimes Against Children Research Center, March 2011
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Sexting: Experimental
Other: motive of youth difficult to discern (but no
malicious intent).
Example: 12 year old took photos of herself and kept
them on her cell phone but did not distribute.
Janis Wolak & David Finkelhor, Sexting: A Typology, Crimes Against Children Research
Center, March 2011
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Aggravated Sexting – Youth Only
Intent to Harm:
1. Cases that arose from interpersonal conflict (i.e.
break ups and fights between friends).
2. Cases that involved abusive conduct (i.e. blackmail,
threats or deception)
3. Criminal sexual abuse or exploitation by juvenile
offenders
Sexting – Intent to Harm
Case Studies
 Jessica Logan, an 18 year old Ohio teen, sent nude pictures of herself
to her boyfriend. After they broke up, he forwarded the pictures to
other high school girls. Jessica was harassed relentlessly.
Ultimately, Jessica committed suicide.
 Jorge Suichil (TX) recently was arrested and charged with child
pornography. The 17 year old asked a 16 year old girl to send him a
photo of her topless. The girl agreed. Later, the girl told police that
Suichil demanded she send him a completely nude photo of herself
or else he would pass the topless shot on to his friends’ cell phones.
The girl told school officials, who called the police.
 In Idaho, a 15 year old female high school student was charged with
a misdemeanor offense of disseminating material harmful to a minor
after she posed as a secret admirer online in order to trick another
female into sending her nude pictures. She then forwarded the
images to several others.
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“Revenge Porn”
 This term recently was added to the urban
dictionary. It is defined as homemade
pornography uploaded by an ex-girlfriend or exboyfriend after breaking up as a means of
humiliating the ex or just for one’s own
amusement.
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Case Study:
 18 years old from Wisconsin
 Charged with making a bomb
threats, sexual assault, possession of
child pornography and five counts
of child enticement.
 Feb. 2010 -- Pled “no contest” to the
sexual assault charges and was
sentenced to 15 years.
 Posed as a girl on Facebook
 Used the false identity to persuade
31 boys to send him nude pictures
then used those pictures as
blackmail for sexual acts.
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Aggravated Sexting: Reckless Misuse
Forwarding the images without the knowledge or
intentional participation of the youth depicted in the
photo.
 Example: Three boys swimming without bathing suits
at a party. Without the boys’ knowledge, a 17 year old
girl video tapes the scene and then sends it to six
girls’ cell phones. Girl charged in juvenile court.
Janis Wolak & David Finkelhor, Sexting: A Typology, Crimes Against Children Research
Center, March 2011
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Aggravated Sexting: Adult
Involved
 In some cases, the victim develops a romantic / sexual
attachment to the offender.
 Example 14 y/o communicates online with step-uncle
(38 y/o). Eventually, the conversation turns sexual
and leads to the exchange of images. Later, after
their relationship turned sexual, they jointly made
images. Offender sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Janis Wolak & David Finkelhor, Sexting: A Typology, Crimes Against Children Research
Center, March 2011
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Aggravated Sexting: Adult Involved
 In other cases, the adult was deceptive in getting the
youth to send the photos.
Example: Offender targeted girls age 11 to 17 by posing
as the owner of a modeling agency. He paid the girls
for nude photos. In some cases, he molested the girls.
Eventually prosecuted. Trial is pending.
Janis Wolak & David Finkelhor, Sexting: A Typology, Crimes Against Children Research
Center, March 2011
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Aggravated Sexting: Adult
Involved
Sexted images created for one purpose can find their
way onto the internet and be downloaded by adults
looking for child pornography.
Law Enforcement officers are finding child
pornography seizures now contain sexting photos
“mixed in among hardcore child pornography.”
Ronan O’Connell, “Police Warn of Sexting Dangers,” The West Australian
(Feb 8, 2010), http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a//mp/6772738/police-warn-of sexting-danger/
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Sexting Prosecutions
4 Possible Individuals to Prosecute:
 The person depicted in the photo
 The person who took the photo
 The person (or people) who sent / forwarded the photo
 The person (or people) who received the photo

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Policy Statement on Sexting (September 21, 2009)
http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/NewsEventServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&P
ageId=4130
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Sexting Prosecutions
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Case of Jorge Canal
18 years old
Exchanging e-mails with a 14 year old female friend
She asked him to send a picture of his penis
Eventually he sends it with the words “I love you”
written across.
 Father finds the photo and brings it to police
 Convicted of knowingly distributing obscene
material to a minor.
 Required to register as a sex offender.
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Sexting & Sex Offender Registries
 In many states, if a person is convicted of a crime
against children, it automatically triggers
registration to the sex offender registry.
 Currently, 38 states include juvenile sex offenders
in their sex offender registries.
 Most states allow public access to sex offender
registries via the Internet and anyone with a
computer can locate registered sex offenders in
their neighborhoods.
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Sexting & PA case
PA school officials confiscated several cell phones from
students containing photos of semi-nude minor female
students
Feb. 2009, the DA sent letters to the parents of the three
females depicted in the photos and approximately 17
students who had the images on their cell phones.
The letter stated that they would not file charges for child
pornography if the children entered an education and
counseling program.
Three females refused the deal and filed a TRO to prevent the
DA from filing charges arguing, in part, that the images did
not satisfy the definition of child pornography. Federal
district court agreed and granted the TRO.
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Legislative Proposals
At least 19 state legislatures have either passed
legislation or have bills pending relating to sexting.
Goal generally is to ensure that there are
consequences for sexting that punish and deter, but
are not so severe that the teen is required to register
as a sex offender.
Many state legislators also seem concerned about a
minor having a permanent record (juvenile or
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criminal).
Methods Used By Legislators
To Address Sexting
 Modify criminal laws to create reduce child
pornography offense to misdemeanor offenses
when committed in the sexting context.
 Exclusion from Sex Offender registry
 Expungement of juvenile records
 Creating an affirmative defense to a charge of CP
 Some states have an educational component
and/or diversionary program.
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School Responses to Sexting
 Story of Ting Yi Oei
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Sexting & PA case
PA school officials confiscated several cell phones from
students containing photos of semi-nude minor female
students
Feb. 2009, the DA sent letters to the parents of the three
females depicted in the photos and approximately 17
students who had the images on their cell phones.
The letter stated that they would not file charges for
child pornography if the children entered an education
and counseling program.
Three females refused the deal and filed a TRO to
prevent the DA from filing charges arguing, in part, that
the images did not satisfy the definition of child
pornography. Federal district court agreed and granted
the TRO.
Subsequent lawsuit by one of the students resulted in a
$33,000 settlement paid by the school system.
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School Liability & Sexting
School recently sued by family of
Hope Witsell
Hope was 13 years old when she
killed herself after a sending her
topless photo to a boy in school.
The image was forwarded to
others and led to serious bullying
Alleged: School had her sign a
“no harm” contract but did not
contact parents
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Sexting & The Net Effect*
The internet does not cause the problems we’ve seen, but it does
change it in the following ways:
Persistence and searchability
Replicability
Scalability
Disinhibition
Invisible audiences & the blurring of public and private
*Anne Collier & Larry Magid of ConnectSafely, “Online Safety 3.0, Empowering &
Protecting Youth.” (utilizing research conducted by dannah boyd in her doctoral
dissertation, “Taken Out of Context: American Teen Sociality in Networked Publics”).
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Sexting & Digital Reputation
If your image is in the sext:
 Once an image is sent to another cellular phone or posted
online, it cannot be retrieved. As a result, the digital age has
changed what might have been a forgotten youthful
indiscretion and turned it into a public, distributable and
permanent part of a teen’s life.
If you forward a sext:
 Creating an online reputation and contributing to negative
digital citizenship.
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Sexting & Digital Reputation
Possible ramifications:
 School discipline
 Loss of scholarships
 Prohibition from participating in sports / after-school
activities
 College admissions
 Employment opportunities
 Future testimony in criminal trials of adults who
possess the images
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Emotional Consequences
Sexting can “profoundly affect the emotional and
psychological development of a child. Trust is
broken when an image is forwarded without the
creator’s consent, such as when a boyfriend forwards
images that are intended to be private.”
“Sexting Questions and Answers from NetSmartz,” Netsmartz.org 2009,
http://ncmec.vo.llnwd.net/o15/downloads/special/Sexting_Prevention.pdf.
Minors depicted in these images are likely to
experience depression, anxiety and other negative
effects from the fact that the images will be
circulating and out of their control forever.
Mary Graw Leary, “The Right and Wrong Responses to Sexting,” Speaking at the Witherspoon Institute,
May 12, 2008, http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2009/05/227
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What can we do?
 Encourage Communication
 Encourage think before you post
 Explain digital reputation. Encourage kids to take
charge of their digital reputation.
 Try not to overreact.
 Monitor for signs of depression
 Explain how to be an UPSTANDER
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Strategies for Parents
 KEEP CURRENT with the technology your child uses.
 KEEP COMMUNICATING with your teen about
everything they experience through connected
technologies.
 KEEP CHECKING their cell phone and Internet activity.
Review text messages and Internet histories. Let them
know that you will keep checking because you want to
help them protect their digital reputation.
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Recommended Reading
 Dena T. Sacco, “Sexting: Youth Practices and Legal
Implications,” The Berkman Center for Internet & Society
at Harvard University (June 22, 2010).
 Mary Leary, “Sexting or Self-Produced Child Pornography?
The Dialogue Continues – Structured Prosecutorial
Discretion within a Multidisciplinary Response,” Virginia
Journal of Social Policy and the Law, Vol. 17, No. 3, Spring
2010.
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Thank You
Questions? Email [email protected]
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