Government tries to combat 'sexting'

The advent of “sexting,” or sending lewd photos through text messages, has recently landed several young people in trouble in Amherst County and beyond.

It may be done by juveniles, and it may be done in jest, but by legal definition it is child pornography –– and the government has gone to significant lengths to combat child pornography.

“There is no ‘sexting’ code section,” said Stephanie Maddox, the Amherst County’s commonwealth’s attorney. “You have technology way out in front of the General Assembly.”

“There is sexting going on in Amherst County,” mostly by young people in high school or middle school, which lands them in considerably adult trouble.

“Parents need to know they (juveniles) can be charged with a felony,” she said.

Maddox declined to discuss specifics of the current case in Amherst because of the age of the people involved.

Whether a defendant distributes or even possesses the images, the potential sentences are five to 30 years or one to 20 years respectively, Maddox said.

Regardless of a criminal consequence, such images can stay with a young person.

“Once you send it, it’s out there,” Maddox said. Strangers, not to mention potential employers, could obtain images made by someone who formerly was compulsive or spontaneous but now is a young adult.

The images typically do not go away.

A case in point is a current investigation, stemming from an image that kept on giving, much to the chagrin of a young person.

It began with a complaint in February, relating to an inappropriate photo on a cell phone that had been taken previously, said Sgt. Lou Goldman, an Amherst County deputy sheriff. Six to eight young people were involved, he said.

“This has nothing to do with the schools, this whole sexting has been done outside of school,” but it came to light when an image reached the school and staff members found out about it.

“So we rounded them up and explained this was inappropriate,” said Goldman, who teaches Drug Awareness Resistance Training, or D.A.R.E., in the schools.

Then, a woman’s daughter was solicited on Facebook, to send inappropriate photos to boys, Goldman said. The mother complained, and it turned out the boy who solicited the girl had been warned in February, “so he got charged,” Goldman said.

In an April incident, which remains under investigation, a young person texted an inappropriate photo to another young person, and that second person took it to school on his cell phone.

“It came to light, and the kids ridiculed the photo subject,” who is female, Goldman said.

The girl reached out to a trusted adult at school –– a guidance counselor –– and the information was forwarded to Goldman.

A total of more than a dozen young people have been involved in the series of events, in Amherst and Appomattox counties and the city of Lynchburg, and an image also had been sent to someone in Nelson County.

If convicted of a child pornography charge, a juvenile will be placed on the state’s sex offender registry, which is life-altering event, Goldman warned.

“They don’t realize, this has huge consequences to their life, beyond middle school and high school.”

“There is no specific statute for juveniles,” and thus they can be exposed to felony prosecutions. “The problem is, some are kids, and some of them are 18.”

“The parents have been supportive,” Goldman said. “We’re not out to persecute children. We’re trying to educate the folks that this is inappropriate, and it can come back to haunt you.”

The sheriff’s office will arrange for meetings to educate parents, he said.

Goldman recommends that parents not so much take away a young person’s phone, but rather take away the ability to text photos.

“There’s really no need for these kids to have the ability to send and receive photos,” he said.

“Texting a conversation is a plus,” Goldman said. “It’s not denying the child, it’s protecting the child,” because a young person who can’t text a photo then is beyond suspicion, he said.