News for the Week of March 23, 2008
Naked photo-sharing, a trend deserving parents' and, for that matter, everyone else's attention - especially teens', tops this week's news...
Naked photo-sharing trend: Police perspective
The Associated Press report of Utah middle-schoolers taking and sending nude photos on their cellphones joins similar reports from Alabama, Pennsylvania, and Georgia, in the past few months. And in 2007 the child-porn-distribution convictions of two Florida teens were upheld in a state appeals court (they'd taken sexually explicit photos of themselves and sent them to the boy's personal email account).
In the Utah case, the prosecutor told the AP that police expect to see more cases like this - they were in fact dealing with "several other similar unrelated cases" - and he is not alone in his struggle to figure out how to handle cases involving teens distributing photos that in effect constitute child pornography depicting themselves and their peers. They cover a full range of behavior, from impulsive to developmentally fairly normal adolescent risk assessment to outright harassment and bullying.
Cases: federal felonies
It's important for teens and parents to know that these cases, which could technically be treated as federal felonies (child-porn distribution), are posing a real challenge to prosecutors. Det. Frank Dannahey, a youth officer in Connecticut for 17 years, agrees that this is a growing problem. A member of our Advisory Board, he emailed me last week in reference to my item on the Alabama case (and kindly gave me permission to publish his email, which describes a local case that struck him and offers teens some things to consider if they're ever tempted to share intimate photos online or on phones):
"I have to agree that it would not be in the best interest of the kids to have them charged with a federal crime," Detective Dannahey wrote. "I really don't believe they understand the implications of what they are doing." Read the full interview here.
Questions to ask before hitting 'Send'
Detective Dannahey advises teens to consider the following before sending 'private' digital photos/videos online:
- "Are you willing to take the chance that someone other than your intended recipient will see your images?
- "Will those images be a source of embarrassment or humiliation to you?
- "Are you willing to take the chance that the images may be a 'career killer' or prevent you from some future opportunity?
- "Will the images/videos that you send violate the law?"
In other news...
- Sex offender label 'problematic.' That's the view of former FBI agent Ken Lanning, WAAY TV in Huntsville, Ala., reports. "Lanning spent 35 years as a special agent for the FBI. He now trains law enforcement officials across the United States on how to investigate allegations of sexual abuse. But even though he's seen and investigated some of the worst cases in the country, he doesn't like the title of sexual predator." Lanning "said the public shouldn't try to fit all [sex offenders] into the same category. Also, he said that not all people convicted of sex crimes should be required to wear electronic monitoring bracelets, and move 2,000 feet from schools or day cares, under laws like Jessica or Megan's Law." And the story doesn't even mention teen-aged convicted sex offenders, young people convicted for acts that may have been crimes, yes, but also possibly may have been huge mistakes made by adolescents who, by definition, don't yet have the impulse control of fully developed adult brains.
- Online-safety myths & tips. Of course, I'm biased in liking the message in my ConnectSafely co-director's column at CBSNEWS.com. But Larry Magid debunks the prevailing myths about teen safety on the social Web and offers what we feel is the best way to approach sticky situations that come up. For example: "For adults - whether parents, teachers, administrators or authorities - it's important to listen and provide support to a child or teen who is scared, worried or bothered by such contact but not to over-react or 'punish the victim' by taking away Internet privileges or forcing them to avoid using social networking sites or other services. The fear of an adult overreacting is one of the reasons many teens give for not coming forward if they have a problem. And parents need to know that taking away a teen's online privileges could backfire by prompting him or her to go into stealth mode by finding hidden ways to get online."
- Net-safety training for UK 5-year-olds? Britain's Conservatives say children as young as five will be taught about online safety and privacy and computer security, The Times of London reports. They're criticizing the government for "not doing enough to raise awareness among children of the dangers posed by cyber-crime," The Times adds. The Conservatives are also proposing the reestablishment of "a national police unit given over to cyber-crime."
- China: World's biggest Net population. The US, which since the beginning of the Web, has had the biggest online population, has been passed by China this year, The Register reports. "Data released earlier this year by the government-run China Internet Network Information Center said that China's internet users totaled 210 million at the end of 2007. US web analyst Nielsen/NetRatings put the American total at 216 million for the same period."
