We all realize that kids do stupid things. They are kids, but bring social media into the mix and it can have disastrous effects. I don’t think anyone here is going to argue about the long-lasting effects that social media can have on someone’s life. A 16-year old Stow, Ohio high school boy is facing a felony charge after he took a picture of himself and a female classmate engaged in a sex act and posted it to Twitter. According to a police report, the 16-year old student took a photo of himself while engaged in a sex act with a 14-year old female student. He texted the photo to three of his friends and then tweeted it. He removed it from Twitter approximately 10-15 minutes later, but by that time it was too late. Once it hit Twitter it was seen by countless people who circulated it around the school.
A student told a teacher about the photo that was circulating, and the school contacted police. The 16-year old is now facing a second degree felony for pandering obscenity involving a minor and a misdemeanor charge of telecommunications harassment. Again, I cannot stress enough the importance of having “that talk” with your kids about the use of social media and what is considered proper use of the internet.
Here we go again what is wrong with this younger generation COMMON SENSE it seems like no respect for the person they are with or theirselves. Just another thing that is wrong with the younger generation NO MORALS and they think its a JOKE well hopefully they prosecute the accused…. just a shame
” a misdemeanor charge of telecommunications harassment.” fancy term for Cyber bullying? That’s one of the big problems with so many teens and preteens having access to cell phones. They are constantly connected to the internet, and teens will push the limits with what they can think they can get away with. That is why they are still considered “children”. I’m not saying letting kids have cell phones is a bad thing. There are many good points. they can be used in case of emergency, for parents to contact the kids without needing to know a land line number, and even if a prepaid phone a lesson in budgeting and time management. But like all things they need the supervision of an adult. You wouldn’t hand your keys to you car to a kid and say “drive yourself to school” without having taught them the basics of drivers education whether taught by a professional or the parent; at least I would hope not. As with a car, Teens need to be taught responsibility when it comes to cell phone and internet usage. And Parents should be responsible for monitoring what their kids do on those phones.And if they are misusing the privilege of the cell phone parents need to deal with it accordingly. Millions of kids grew up just fine without cell phones in their pockets 24/7.
An excellent example of OH Revised Code 2907.2, sexual offenses, of a minor. Being applied & utilized as intended! Noting the boy was not 18. ~Cough, cough!
Seemingly a case of really bad judgment calls on a few points. Hopefully for both, they have learned from & use to positively caution & educate others eventually. I’d bet their classmates got an eye opener re. laws & reality.
the girl @ 14, too young & naive to have trusted him, because first opportunity he shares with buddy… And Twit land. Scary thing is once out there on internet, it’s impossible to erase all traces of. (hmm?!) It could potentially come back & bite her in the butt later in life… And she can thank him for that too!
Overall when applied with the rape case, only serves to SCReaM failure, misconduct & unlawful negligence by the local LE & judicial system!
If a prosecutor wants to bring charges…there are a multitude of ones to choose from for nearly all offenses. IMO there are many charges to choose from and she chose NOT to.
Apparently Stow Ohio must have different laws than Steubenville. I don’t recall anyone getting charged with telecommunications harassment for disseminating lewd comments about the August rape victim. Shouldn’t Nodi and Saltsman be charged with this?
You would think… But apparently in S.O. If its not on certain phones current memory, it doesn’t count! I guess once it is uploaded onto the Internet & passed around one becomes innocent. Or texted to other people, or shown directly… Innocent! Yep in other places this would be pandering or as noted above. In S.O. It’s a get out jail free card!
A 16 year old boy takes a photo while engaging in a sex act with a 14 year old girl. I hope he is in trouble for more than taking a photo and putting it on twitter!
How about monitoring your teenagers sexual activities!!!! Agreed, a 16 yr old and 14 yr old maing sex tapes,pictures, whatever sounds criminal in itself., What the hell is happening if everyone thinks HS Middle School sex ok, just no photos, please.Parents, please, monitor your kids, talk to them. Do you all want to be raising their babies while they work on their GEDs. Wake Up.
14 year olds have NO reason to be dating, IMO. That’s just asking for trouble.
prinnie, you should have mentioned also that along with parents having conversations with their kids about proper use of their technojunk, to include proper use of their bodies for heaven sake. 14 yr old girls engaging in sexual activities(usually because of peer and bf pressure) not good.
Snapchat should be added to parents radar. Pictures are sent from phone to phone and will disappear after 10 seconds, UNLESS the recipient takes a screen shot on their phone. Then it can be sent via text, email, Twitter ~ whatever. My daughter is a high school sophomore and she knows people at school who send naked snapchats to others. In one instance the boy and girl sending naked snapchats didn’t even go to the same school and had never even met in person! They just followed my daughter on Twitter and noticed each others tweets that my daughter retweeted or favorited. Parents need have a serious understanding of the technology their children use. I follow my daughter on Twitter and Facebook. And I take every opportunity I can to have conversations with her about social media and how permanent bad choices can be.
Yeah and to tell them that doing this is manufacture of child porn. I think parents need to take this as an opportunity to educate their kids about the law and MORALS. Teens do stupid shit - but I would have never even thought of something like this when I was that age.
I tell my daughter a good rule of thumb is never take a picture that you would be embarassed to show your grandmother. Ha!
Even those teenage girls who think it’s acceptable to post very revealing photos to boyfriends can be rattled by hearing how their can be passed around between “nasty OLD men.” I heard a classroom of bored girls being admonished not to post x rated things online. Their eye rolls turned into shrieks of disgust when confronted with that image. It sounded like that worked, anyway. I could hear the term, “Ewwwwww” all the way down the hall.
Anonymous said they would post info about corruption in Steubenville PD and more info on an alleged member of the rape crew. I have yet to find it on twitter or on Local Leaks blog. Has anybody seen the release of new info? Link? TIA.
I believe it was LocalLeaks who said they were going to have 2 press releases yesterday. One in the morning and one read by Anonymous at the end of yesterdays rally. I haven’t seen any release from yesterday and there was nothing read from them at the rally.
@prinnie February 2, 2013 at 7:58 pm
[i]Yeah and to tell them that doing this is manufacture of child porn. I think parents need to take this as an opportunity to educate their kids about the law and MORALS. Teens do stupid shit – but I would have never even thought of something like this when I was that age. [/i]
Of course no one would have thought of something like that when we were that age. This was back in the Dark Ages, before instant communication. Even boys who may have been so inclined were stopped (if not by morals) by the prospect of discovery, as photos had to be developed. Even after the development of Polaroid cameras, although the risk of discovery by the developer was eliminated, one still had a physical photo. Sharing was difficult, because any such photo could be seized.
Today, it’s not only the ubiquity of the cameras (every phone has one) but the fact that they can immediately be published. I suspect that teenagers were really no different when we were young, it’s just that the technology to facilitate such abuse simply did not exist.
@Tracy February 2, 2013 at 8:48 pm
I tell my daughter a good rule of thumb is never take a picture that you would be embarassed to show your grandmother. Ha!
The problem isn’t even so much the picture _they_ take; they have complete control over the pictures they take — it’s the pictures taken by others, over which they have no control.
Yes! Good point. EVERYONE has a camera and pictures will be taken without their knowledge or consent.
@Ann February 2, 2013 at 10:37 am
A 16 year old boy takes a photo while engaging in a sex act with a 14 year old girl. I hope he is in trouble for more than taking a photo and putting it on twitter!
We’ll just have to see what happens in this instant case. In general, what I find troubling is the gender-based disparity in sentencing and/or punishment, with boys generally getting a slap on the wrist, if they are punished at all, while the girls usually find the full weight of the law coming down on them.
I’m thinking of a case in Florida a few years back, involving a girl of 16, and her then-boyfriend of 17. For some unknown reason she emailed photos of herself and her boyfriend in the act to her boyfriend. The records are unclear as to how these photos were discovered, but it ended up that both the girl and boy were charged with child pornography offenses under Florida law. Because the age of consent in Florida was 16 at the time, the sex between the two was perfectly legal — what was highly illegal was the recording of said acts.
It is unclear whether the charges against the boy were dismissed, or he was found not guilty. The girl, on the other hand, was found guilty. She appealed to the Florida court of Appeal, and her conviction on child pornography charges was upheld, on a 2-1 split by the court of Appeal judges. One of the judges who ruled against her was a former prosecutor, who stated that it was necessary to uphold her conviction to ‘protect her’ as the images in question may have escaped her control and be sold to pedophiles. For the life of me, I cannot fathom how upholding a criminal conviction, and maintaining this girl’s name on the sex offender register for the rest of her life is going to “protect” her.
@elaine February 2, 2013 at 1:58 pm
prinnie, you should have mentioned also that along with parents having conversations with their kids about proper use of their technojunk, to include proper use of their bodies for heaven sake. 14 yr old girls engaging in sexual activities(usually because of peer and bf pressure) not good.
No argument here. My understanding is that, in most jurisdictions, 14 is below the age of consent, opening up the 16yo male to statutory rape charges, which should be pursued vigorously (as should the child pornography charges).
Maybe I’m just an old fart, but why do kids need all these techno-gewgaws anyway? We didn’t have phones when we were kids, and we survived.
I heard on radio yesterday a relevant point to social media and the generation of. It was by Dr. Laura, who I agree with much of her basic principles, but some of her opinions far too extreme in women feeding men’s egos & cow tailing to etc… Anyway her point was parents should not allow kids to use social media or smartphones. That it is setting them up to fail. By using it gives a false impression that the world cares what they have to say. That their commentaries on other’s comments also matter. That how many followers or friends they have makes them important. In essence further adding to the inflated egos of our youth. As does trophies for all mentality (*Tg for some travel club soccer/futbol holding out on positions & playing time is earned not granted (: ). And even video game standings as sharp shooters, kills, etc, etc… Overall spending so much of their lives in virtual/cyber land, they are ill prepared for life in the real world! Their views, sense of self-importance, accountability, inflated self-esteems,… Have no standing in reality, and they will fail in life because there is only down to go from. Enter Depression, alcohol/drug abuse, suicide, all will continue to rise in direct response to.
Is she over dramatizing predictions? I’m not so sure. And if you add to mix a community that adds to this false boosting of team members, and no culpability for even illegal actions on those channels… Yikes! No wonder it has led to actual illegal activity in the physical world!
ie. on a much smaller scale, I had a friend in HS who was the superstar of his HS baseball team. He was recruited straight to minor leagues of a well known team. His ego got in the way, the coaches couldn’t tolerate him. He was just one of many elite players, no longer the star. After a season he was cut or packed his own bags and headed home. Back to his comfort zone. He has a family now and a youth coach, doing well. But he has to wonder what if…
Or on the flip side, another friend who was a very successful HS basketball player. Far more modest and always kind young man, popular for it. He is now a very successful college coach at a few colleges over time.
Now add the virtual ego boosts to the equation, there’s no telling how it may have affected outcomes, but I’m going to guess for the negative. And no neither, not any other team members that I recall, were out raping people or breaking laws! In fact i know for a fact the star was a gentleman on the dating front. Yet I do recall busted drinking, smoking, fighting off or on campus, cheating, or any other basic bad behavior… Cut from the team for a season in most cases!
I agree that a lot of these kids are lacking proper social skills because they are communicating via text, FB and other social media so they aren’t learning body cues, facial expressions or basic social cues and boundaries. Add that to the fact that kids do not lack appropriate decision making skills and it’s a recipe for disaster.