"Sexting" incident reported at Newton middle school

I think a nice cell phone tax will cure this.

Hey teachers! leave them kids alone. Dumb adults need to stay out of this "manufactured crisis"

It's not a text message if it was a picture that was sent...it's a picture message.

Taxes? Yeah, kids really care about paying taxes. I can hear some 8th grader right now, "I'm was gonna send this nudie picture to my friend, but I'm worried about that new text tax. Wouldn't want my parents to have to shell out another few bucks for my cell phone bill".

Silliest. Suggestion. Ever.

I'm not sure why the responsibility for enforcement rests with the school. Education: fine, enforcement: no.

Very interesting read! At the O' Bryant, the minority exam school in Boston, students caught sexting were sent to the Barron center, a place for students that bring weapons to school. In a white suburb, students caught sexting receive education. One must wonder if the O' Bryant Headmaster, scheduled to become the new Headmaster at Newton South, will apply to Newton South students the same punishment he applied to O' Bryant students.

We shall find soon!

We fret over this nonsense,
Meanwhile US warfare is killing school children overseas (as collateral damage of course)
And Americans wonder why they are despised around the world

WHERE ARE THE PARENTS OR CAREGIVERS! TAKE AWAY THEIR PHONES, COMPUTERS, IPODS, & TV and MAYBE TALK TO YOUR KIDS!!!

Whoever pays the cell phone bill should be able to see the messages being sent - date, time, to whom, from whom, AND CONTENT. How many parents would pay extra to be able to check their kids messages??? MANY!! Come on Verizon, Sprint et. al. there's big money in such a feature...

OK, how stupid are these kids? Every day the news or paper or net news tout the problems with texting. yet it continues. Stupid is as stupid does...

Another example od young people living the good life while parents go about making the money and ignoring the basic principles of being a parent. Again, tell me why middle school students need cellphones? Agree with Tired of th BS about questioning why some ms kids have 3-5 ipods, new laptops, new phones every year, etc.

Nick Name: you'll want enforcement when some punk kid wants to send your daughter's nude pics to every boy in 8th grade. Enforcement is necessary. Things like this end up in suicide, homicide and child porn. The time to teach the kids is now. If law enforcement needs to deal with it, then so be it.
Pink Floyd. See above.
If the parents aren't taking responsibility for their children, then the law will. If parents do their jobs, then enforcement won't even be an issue.

The only danger from "sexting" is the government!

Thinking adults should realize that these teenagers are human. Will suggestive photographs one day ruin someone's job chances? Perhaps. What is CERTAIN to ruin lives is an arrest record, child pornography charges, a criminal record, and perhaps decades of sex offender status. This is guaranteed to ruin a teens chances for both education and future employment.

Decriminalize these so-called offenses before more lives are destroyed by this senselessness. How so many can care about these petty indiscretions while so much brutality continues to be carried out in our name across the globe is beyond me.

"and make sure we nipped it in the bud as soon as we heard anything.”

LOL... The school system is so oblivious. This is so so common. Not that it is good but this pictures are sent everyday without second thought, and not always through the medium of texting, I have heard emails, videochat, facebook and many other things.

Here's some twisted liberal logic for you: tax cell phone usage as Anonymous suggests and 14 year olds won't send nude photos. Also, here's a news flash: kids have been sharing nude photos forever and will continue to do so through any means possible, whether it's cave drawings of a hot cavewoman or sexting.

Once again this is like 'Book Burning.' This is why 'young people' don't trust nor communicate with adults. When will adults realize our maturity tends to make us into 'Nazis.' Sometimes adults become extremists, when it comes to their own personal or political agendas!

Rob (#15), Yes kids have been sharing nude photos forever, but usually not of each other and not with the ability to proliferate so quickly. This is a problem and a relatively new issue for parents and teachers to deal with. It's much different when it's an actual classmate's nude picture being sent around than a relatively anonymous person's photo. Students have become suicidal or otherwise traumatized by "sexting" incidences.

Heres an idea "PARENTS" your kids don't need texting abilities on their phones. How about some parenting skils. My kids will have a phone but guess what it will only be able to call me.

The problem with trying to fix this issue is as follows:

14 year old girl sends picture to 14 year old boy. The boy shares this photo with his peer group.

The boy cna get hit with illegal distribution of child pornography charge, the girl gets counseling. This is what happened in my town.

In reality, both kids involved made bad decisions, but the boy could become a sex offender or face criminal action, depending on the mood of the people who can bring on these type of charges. So, parents, tell your boys that they have greater legal responsibility to do the right thing as the laws in place work naturally against them...

getaclue: "you'll want enforcement when some punk kid wants to send your daughter's nude pics to every boy in 8th grade"

Hmmm... maybe she should not have taken those pictures of herself in the first place? Maybe she should know better than to send them?

Maybe you, as a parent are responsible for determining whether your kid should have a cell phone, or checking what they use it for...

Maybe the government should not threaten kids with a criminal record over a victimless crime ?

In first grade we tease the kids about having a boyfriend. In fifth grade we dress them in clothes with the word "juicy" on their butts. In eighth grade we make sure they have all the latest things: cell, laptop, hooker clothes (because god forbid we give our daughters the idea that they might actually be worth more than sex) And then we are shocked when they are behaving exactly like we raised them to. 1. Do what everyone else is doing 2. Follow the crowd 3. Make sure you're popular (we all know how much being popular in high school helped us in the real world, right?) 4. DON'T SEEM DIFFERENT!!! And the Golden Rule: Make Sure You Live the Life I Wanted To Live In Highschool But Never Actually Did. We all know: High School is real important - these problems matter.

Sorry, but I am very bitter against parents who throw up their hands and wonder where they went wrong because their 13 year old is sending nude picutres of herself. They enabled this by giving her 1. Zero Education about Self Worth and 2. A cell phone/laptop/digital camera.

Now go on, get mad at me. After all, its easier to go into a rage and denial than it is to actually take a look at how you're killing the next generation.

How did we let a law get passed that made a foolish act of sending a half naked photo of oneself to others a crime? Sex is more than being naked and it sounds like there does not need to be sex for officials to call it sexting. We need to fix this so that police and the courts can ignore this and get back to dealing with actual crime.

Why do 12 year olds need cell phones? Why not send risque photos? Afterall that's what Miley Cyrus aka Hannah Montana did and everyone thought that was OK. There are child-safety cell phones available on the market that can call 911 and only numbers programmed into them (home phone, Mom's work #). Monitor what your kids watch on TV and don't leave them unattended on the computer unless you have parental control software. How about making the kids do homework and study instead of spending hours texting and myspacing? The upside will be fewer incidents like this and better MCAS scores.
Parents need to get a clue!

Simple solution. . . don't give kids expensive cell phones that can take pictures. Give kids phones that can call only home and relatives. Why do kids need cell phones anyways? . . . so they can call home, and be contacted by parennts. Putting this type of technology in a child's hands, and expecting them to make the right decision all the time is ludicrous. Many adults can't even make the right choice with technology.

DH

prosecute whoever's name is on the account as being in possession nof kiddie porn

Why not for parents to say that no children under 18 can have texting future on ther phones? After all it is parents who buy phones and pay for the service. Seems the simplies solution.

Since when is text messaging and sending pics to your friends any of the school administrators' business? Since when do teachers and principals have the right to controll what you you do outside of the classroom?

They claim they dont want these images being passed around to other 13 yr old boys and girls, but the 45 year old administrators are all looking at the pics of the nude 14 yr old student right? So how is it bad for the 13 yr old boys to pass the pics around but it isnt a crime for a 45 yr old administrator to take a peek at the underage nude girl? What a bunch of crap!

And if you dont want your daughter's nude pics being passed around, tell her not to take and send pics like that in the first place. Its that simple people.

In suburbs of Chicago it is a Child Pornography felony if you send or receive such sexting messages. Charge is to the owner of the phone, often the parents. This isn't a light issue.

I agree with the earlier poster stating that the consequence follow the financial status of the community. This same thing happened in Lynnfield Middle School. Whats worse the image was attributed to a different girl than the one who actually posed for it. The wrongfully accused was pulled out of class and grilled by the principal and superintendent without her parents knowledge the whole time no one could produce the photo. The correct people were id'd but when the victims mom ask that they run a assembly the Superintendent's reply was "we are not going to do that. This is Lynnfield not Salem". I hope they do fall into any other situations that progress to further damage, because that statement will haunt them.

I say throw the book at them - the laws are written for a reason, and at some point a harsh example is going to have to be made to drive the point home that illegal behavior is not acceptable.
The sex offender registry is there for a reason - if this "innocent" behavior is not punished and dealt with immediately, these kids will only end up increasing the severity of their behavior. Stop it now before they move on an really end up hurting someone else's kid - maybe yours? Hmmm...all of a sudden it;s a bigger deal now isn't it? Watch wait and see.

Look at the kids from Falmouth - they got off with a slap on the wirst - which sent a message to *everyone* that distributing nude images of children is ok. If it's so ok, why is it a FELONY in Mass that REQUIRES a 10 year Mandatory Minimum sentence?

EmmyBee: When you receive your cell phone bill, it does not say what was sent in text/picture messages. It just says you sent a certain phone number a message.
The problem is that kids in middle school shouldn't be allowed cell phone. I graduated from high school almost 10 years ago and no one had cell phone or any of these other devices. We had to wait until we graduated and PAY FOR THEM OURSELVES! Sick of parents giving in to their kids on everything. It's not the schools responsibility. Parents need to start actually parenting their kids.

My 8th grader may, in fact, be the only kid in her school that does NOT have a cell phone. I'm thinking of giving her one as a "graduation" present, but it will be talk only...no texting. There is little to no reason for a middle schooler to have a cell phone. Oh, and we have one computer in our house (plus my laptop). The kids only access the PC in the living room, where we can monitor what they are doing. MySpace and Facebook are blocked sites. Any time I see these articles, I read them to my kids. None of it seems really hard. Am I guaranteed my kids won't get sucked into this nonesense? Of course not, but I think I've done the best job possible to arm them with knowledge and rules...AKA being a parent rather than a buddy.

YOSHIMI - Love your advice. Hope everyone listens! Thank you for finally stating the obvious! My parents never gave us brand new anything, but they made sure we were taken care of. Now I have younger cousins (ages from 5 to 17) and its ridiculous how they are parented! The 17 year old just got a brand new 2009 car and is allowed to drink, and the younger cousins can cause trouble without any consequences.

Yoshimi said:
"In first grade we tease the kids about having a boyfriend. In fifth grade we dress them in clothes with the word "juicy" on their butts. In eighth grade we make sure they have all the latest things: cell, laptop, hooker clothes (because god forbid we give our daughters the idea that they might actually be worth more than sex) And then we are shocked when they are behaving exactly like we raised them to. 1. Do what everyone else is doing 2. Follow the crowd 3. Make sure you're popular (we all know how much being popular in high school helped us in the real world, right?) 4. DON'T SEEM DIFFERENT!!! And the Golden Rule: Make Sure You Live the Life I Wanted To Live In Highschool But Never Actually Did. We all know: High School is real important - these problems matter.

Sorry, but I am very bitter against parents who throw up their hands and wonder where they went wrong because their 13 year old is sending nude picutres of herself. They enabled this by giving her 1. Zero Education about Self Worth and 2. A cell phone/laptop/digital camera.

Now go on, get mad at me. After all, its easier to go into a rage and denial than it is to actually take a look at how you're killing the next generation."

... I have nothing to add. Right on Yoshimi

Yoshimi, awesome post!! I agree completely.
Others are posting their "easy solutions". Must be nice to live in a fantasy world. There are never easy solutions. "Don't get your 8th grader a fancy cell phone". Yeah, that will work. Do you people have kids? Ever have a kid screaming and yelling about how everyone but them has this gizmo and they need it and you have to get it for me or I'll run away from home, I'll hate you forever blah blah blah"?? Sure, there's a few folks out there who have little angels and they've raised them perfectly or whatever, but what worked for you and your kid doesn't always work the exact same way with someone else's kid.

And there's another one! "tell your daughter not to send those pics of herself, it's that simple". HA! Another person who doesn't have kids. Maybe you were never a kid yourself? What's the absolute first thing a kid does after a parent tells them not to do something? If it took you more than half a second to answer that, you're just clueless.

I do like the Chicago thing though. If a minor is caught doing something bad with a cell phone or whatever device, fine or arrest the parents. Then and only then will you see parents cracking down on their kids and their toys.

i think this entire 'crisis' is a wonderful thing. we're just one generation away from a shame free society in regards to nudity.

The problem will exist regardless of having a cell phone or not, what is stopping kids from sending lude images through email? It is practically the same thing. Now what is the suggestion> Block kids' email? This problem is unsolvable and should be left alone. Blowing it up in the media just makes it seem more appealing. Quiglewis your "parenting" techniques are rediculous and paranoid. Blocking social networking sites will not prevent your kids from acting like the kids who are sexting. I do agree that parents should educate their children about sexting, but keeping an extremely strict watch over everything they do will not solve the problem. If anything it will just make your kids resent you. Also, what's the problem with a middleschooler having a cell phone? They could just email.

Strict parenting will not stop the problem, but education will.

WTG QuigLewis! That's the way it should be. These people who thinks it's okay to distribute a photo of a child to all of their classmates are in for a huge shock when their own kids get caught up in it. It is NOT normal for a kid to distribute classmates photos in such a manner. That is a crime! I'm not talking about prosecuting a kid who gives a nude picture to the "boyfriend" or "girlfriend". I'd give that one a pass as the behavior of children. What is wrong is the dissemination of that picture. For any of you who think that's okay; you're sick. That is not a "victimless crime" as HBX wishes to call it. That is the very reason that these stories make the news. Any student who has sent these pics out to classmates all over the school (and the town in some instances) did so with the intent to hurt the person whose picture was sent. That makes for a victim in the real world and the government has a duty to protect those victims when they are children. If you don't like your kids being prosecuted for disseminating child porn, then teach them what appropriate behavior means.

Anyone who thinks the parents should get a criminal charge for a child sexting has to be insane. Wake up and smell the coffee.

WHAT?! Bored, spoiled, white suburban teens actin' a fool?! I'm shocked! Well, this is what happens when degenerate, MTV-esque media permeates these (already underdeveloped) teenage brains. Let the brats crash and burn...learning the hard way why NOT to be a disgusting whore may be the only life lesson these people ever get. LOL

I get the sense that some of the people posting on here are anti-technology. What's wrong with middleschool kids having cell phones. Let's say they don't have cell phone they would still find ways to do whatever they want. It's the parents responsibility to educate and supervise their children the best way they can and hope that their kids take the advise because all the parents on here that claim that their kids are perfect, they are in for a rude awakening.

answerman - when i was younger, i begged & pleaded for a lot of things with my parents but when they said "no" it meant "no". It wasn't up for further discussion. When they said "no and that's final" i didn't bring it up again. When kids beg & plead enough and get their way, that doesn't teach them anything in the end. Just that they'll always get what they want.
-- someone WITH kids (who aren't 110% angels as you previously mentioned)

I'm still waiting to hear what business is this of the school, or indeed of any school. Of the civil authorities, perhaps. Of the school, no.

Okay just saying should we be more worried about genocides and hate crimes rather then something that is so inferior in this world. This "problem" is not a problem its called freewill. Whats the difference in a boy looking at a porn magazine then a picture on his phone; essnetially if a girl is comforable in her own skin let her do whatever she wants. Sure it is bad to send it to other people but that is a risk that boy or girl will have to think about before they actually send it. You people just need to get a rise out of parents and other people to make yourself look important. Honestly, kids are doing so much worse then just a picture; and every adult will have to get over that. Let your kid make their choice. Sure guide them along the way but they dont need a leash. "Sexting" is so small compared to problems on this world.

Answerman - that has got to be the worst argument yet. Just because your kid whines that all the other kids have "this gizmo and they need it and you have to get it for me or I'll run away from home, I'll hate you forever blah blah blah"?? " is no reason to give a kid anything. No, there are no easy solutions. Parenting is not easy. I don't care how much a kid screams and yells about how everyone but them has something. If the parent deems it detrimental to the kid's upbringing, then the parent wins.
Parents are not supposed to be their kid's friend. They're supposed to be their parents.

The laws regarding child porn were never intended to be used against the kids it was designed to protect. These laws were designed to protect kids from adult predators not for some kid expressing their natural and normal sexual curiosity. The real social criminals here are prosecutors who use the technicality of the law that says "anyone" rather than "adults" to ruin these kids lives. Change the laws for juveniles and sexting and vote out of office those prosecutors who believe 22% of our teen child should be in prison as felony sex offenders.

Based on the past 35 years of liberal, kid-centric, hippie pot weird philosophy, what other behavior would you expect. We have "indoctrinated" our children into a culture where they think the more shocking you are-be it sexual preference, political views, or just being plain outrageous, the more you will be accepted. In the rare case where the crappolla hits the fan, we immediately get the family doctor to diagnose a "condition" or "disorder" . There is no longer ANY responsibility or accountability expected from any of these poor, spoiled Tikes. How hypocritical to now put on our "serious" faces and act parental. Please, spare me the shock. WE created these kids!

#45 you said it. Answerman....... Oh wah wah my kids kept badgering me. So me being the cool parent I had to give in..."So you know my kids and I will still be friends". You are a fool who cares if they keep bugging you for the new gadget like Marathonman said Who cares how much they scream. Parenting is a difficult task you need to stay convicted about your beliefs and not let the children wear you down... Just because its easier. That's the problem with kids today. You and your parenting skills are the reason the rest of us have to raise your kids.