Sexting repercussions: Update

Here's a sampler of sexting cases (in three states) in the news this past week: Two Ohio 15-year-olds pleaded guilty to "contributing to the delinquency of a minor" and have been sentenced, the boy to 30 days' house arrest and the girl to writing a research paper for the court on the dangers of sexting and both to 100 hours of community service and no cellphones for 30 days, WHIO Radio reports. Investigators from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office showed up at the homes of five Florida teens aged 14-16 with search warrants and "seized their cell phones and home computers, in a stunning sexting investigation," a Fox TV station there reports. As of Tuesday they had not been arrested, but the stakes are high in Florida if they are (see "FL teen a registered sex offender for sexting"). And in Nebraska, a 15-year-old high school freshman has been convicted and sentenced to 12 months' probation for sending nude photos to a 13-year-old girl, the first sexting conviction of a minor in that part of the state, the North Platte Bulletin reports. See also "Sending of Explicit Photos Can Land Teens in Legal Fix" in the Washington Post and our "Tips to Prevent Sexting" at ConnectSafely.org. You might also appreciate this meaty conversation on sexting on Capitol Hill, offering three important perspectives: that of law enforcement, from Monique Roth, senior counsel at the US Justice Department; Donna Rice Hughes, president of Enough is Enough, on the sexualized media environment; and Ting-Yi Oei, assistant principal of Freedom High School in Loudoun County, Va., on sexting incident at his school (see also "Asst. principal tells his own story").