How can we make sure our teens don’t take these kinds of pics?
Naked cell phone pics of “Twilight“‘s Ashley Greene and “High School Musical“‘s Vanessa Hudgens surfaced over the past week. How can we make sure our teens don‘t make this same mistake?
Here are some talking points to discuss with your own kids.
1. Taking or forwarding naked cell phone pics when you’re underage is illegal.
Six Pennsylvania high school students are facing child pornography charges after three teenage girls allegedly took nude or semi-nude photos of themselves and shared them with male classmates via their cell phones.
The female students at Greensburg Salem High School in Greensburg, Pa., all 14 or 15 years old, face charges of manufacturing, disseminating, or possessing child pornography, while the boys, who are 16 and 17, face charges of possession.
Make sure your teen knows they could go to jail for taking or receiving naked cell phone pics — and they could even be forced to register as a sex offender. This is serious stuff, with repercussions that could last a lifetime.
2. Just because you send a pic to ONE person doesn’t mean they aren’t going to forward it to 100 others — or even post them online for the entire world to see.
Many of the “sexting” cases that are pending involve teens who sent naked pictures to tens, hundreds, even thousands of people. One guy even allegedly forwarded naked photos of his ex-girlfriend to HER PARENTS. Once you put a picture like that out there, you have no control whatsoever over who is going to see it. And no matter how much you trust your boyfriend NOW, you have no idea how he’ll change when and if you break up. There are no guarantees.
3. Sexting has ruined — and ended — lives.
Jesse Logan sent nude pictures of herself to a boyfriend. When they broke up, he sent them to hundreds of other students. The girls at school harassed her, calling her a slut and a whore. She was miserable and depressed, afraid even to go to school.
Last July, Jesse Logan hanged herself in her bedroom. She was 18.
Sending a naked picture ended Jesse’s life. Don’t put your life at risk.
4. If you lose your phone, the pictures could end up in the wrong hands.
Phillip Sherman of Arkansas learned that lesson after he left his phone behind at a McDonald’s restaurant with naked photos of his wife on it. The photos ended up online, along with their names, address, and phone number. His family has been devastated, and they are even suing McDonald’s over their lives being ruined by these leaked photos.
5. Your phone could get hacked.
Both Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Greene say that their phones were hacked and the photos were stolen. Nothing is 100% secure. The only way to make sure nude photos of you don’t leak is NOT TO TAKE THEM.
6. Know that Mom will be checking your phone!
Moms, make sure your teen knows you will be checking the photos on their phone often. After all, you pay the cell phone bills. This should be a deterrent from them taking (or receiving) racy photos — especially if they’re fearful THEIR MOM will see them!
Some experts say that you shouldn’t even buy your teen a cell phone with a camera in it … but practically every cell phone comes with one these days. It’s important to talk to your teens openly about sexting, and emphasize the many reasons why they shouldn’t do it. Keep the lines of communication open.
How do you discourage your teens from taking racy cell phone pics?
Police say that a group of six male teenagers were found running, then swimming naked in a lake.
All six have been found and were given citations for disorderly conduct.
Authorities say a driver told them that six males, ages 17-19, were running south on North Lake Road in Oconomowoc at about 12:55 a.m. Wednesday.
Officers came to the scene and found the teenagers swimming away from them in Fowler Lake.
Police caught one of them a short time later, and they discovered three more of them at a home.
The other two were reported missing, and dive teams from Delafield, Okauchee and Western Lakes attempted to find them.
One of the missing teenagers reached home at about 3:00 a.m., while the other was discovered going into his car just before 5:00 a.m.
After actress Vanessa Hudgens and singer Miley Cyrus, Twilight actress Ashley Greene, who plays Alice in the Twilight movies has become the latest celebrity to see her nude pictures/photos leaked on the Internet. Ashley Greene is reportedly horrified to see her naked pictures on web.
Ashley‘s candid snaps feature one full frontal photograph, from spreading. According to The Sun, her lawyer has warned websites against posting her naked pictures. “The photos in question, which appear to be of our client, are illegal and are being unlawfully displayed. Our client intends to take legal action,” The Sun quotes her legal representative.
The actress’ attorney has even spoken to celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton. “Ms. Greene is the owner of the copyrights in these photos, and, as copyright owner, Ms. Greene owns the exclusive rights, among others, to reproduce, distribute, and to display the photos,” The Sun reports as the attorney telling Perez Hilton.
This shocking news of her naked pictures came when Ashley Greene was busy celebrating the success of getting the ‘Fresh Face Female Award‘ at BTeen Choice Awards. However, the actress is said to be afraid of loosing her career as Twilight actor at the moment.
Arlington comic Dane Cook made “High School Musical” honey Vanessa Hudgens the<a href="http://gaszewski.wordpress.com/renek-gaszewski-models/" title="Fine Art Nude Photography from Renek Gaszewski's Studio" ahem, butt of a naked-picture joke at the Teen Choice Awards the other night – but the TV audience never got to hear it!
Cook called out the teen temptress for her latest nude-photo scandal, saying, “Girl, you got to keep your clothes! Phones are for phone calls, girl.”
But the joke was cut before the show was broadcast on FOX . Ditto for Vanessa’s not-so-thrilled reaction.
Naked cellphone pics of the 20-year-old actress surfaced on the Internet earlier this week – the second time the “Bandslam” star has had to deal with a naughty-photo scandal in her short career.
Hudgens’ lawyer said the latest pics were taken before the ones that surfaced in 2007 and were shot when the actress was underage. He threatened legal action against any Web sites displaying the photos.
As for Cook, he said the joke was a late addition to his onstage bit.
“That’s the best part about being a comic, when you go, ‘Maybe I can say the thing that everybody is kind of feeling and nobody is saying.’ The elephant-in-the-room moment. So, I’ll take it, I’ll take the hit. It’s OK.”
Miley Cyrus‘ pole-dancing moment at the Teen Choice Awards Sunday capped what was surely an uncomfortable night for some parents, though Fox did cut away from Cyrus‘ actual straddling of the pole (and the network also deleted a joke by presented Dane Cook, who referenced “High School Musical” star Vanessa Hudgens‘ topless photo scandal.)
But Cyrus‘ wardobe (or lack thereof) was cringe-inducing: First there was her red carpet micromini and skintight tank top, followed by her performance ensemble: hot pants and a wisp of a shirt covering a sheer bra. She dispensed with a bra altogether while presenting an award to former Disney star Britney Spears in an extremely low-cut blouse and a skirt apparently consisting of feathers, jewels and mesh.
The increasingly risque behavior is a little ironic, considering Cyrus‘ attitude last year after Vanity Fair published her gauzy, bare-backed Vanity Fair photographs by celebrity photographer Annie Leibowitz. There was much much moral outrage over shots of the then-15-year-old star wrapped in a satin sheet. (Dad Billy Ray Cyrus was on set, and was even photographed with her for the portfolio; he was also in the audience for her Teen Choice performance).
But Miley Cyrus quickly distanced herself from the controversy: “I took part in a photoshoot that was supposed to be ‘artistic‘ and now, seeing the photographs and reading the story, I feel so embarrassed,” Cyrus said in a statement. “I never intended for any of this to happen and I apologize to my fans who I care so deeply about.”
We hate to be all “kids these days!” but the Teen Choice Awards offered up a couple of other head-scratching moments, particularly in its nominations. Though noms for Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers, “Twilight,” and “The Princess Protection Program,” were plentiful, our jaw dropped when Anna Paquin was nominated (but did not win) for summer TV star for her role as telepathic barmaid Sookie Stackhouse in “True Blood.”
Not that Paquin isn’t deserving, but “True Blood,” which this season has so far featured frenzied orgies (that’s plural), torture, organ-eating, and the sight of man being ripped apart, is not for the faint-hearted, and certainly not for the same crowd that gave Selena Gomez the win over Paquin.
And then of course there’s 22-year-old Ashley Greene, the “Twilight” star whose is suffering through her own naked photo scandal. The photos surfaced yesterday on the Internet, and her lawyer is threatening to sue anyone who posts them.
“The photos in question, which appear to be of our client, are illegal and are being unlawfully displayed,” her lawyer says in a statement. He says that Greene holds the copyright on the pictures, and only she can authorize their publication. Which we presumably does not want to do. As Cook told Hudgens during the awards show (not that the audience at home heard), “Girl, you gots to keep your clothes! Phones are for phone calls, girl.”
A band director at Williams Valley High School has been arrested and charged with 10 counts of possessing child pornography.
Leroy Johns Jr., 43, of 405 Dietrich Ave., Porter Township, was charged July 28 by state police Trooper Paul M. Smith of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Harrisburg. He was arraigned the following day by Magisterial District Judge Carol A. Pankake, Tremont, and released on $35,000 unsecured bail.
In his affidavit of probable cause, Smith said the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Service contacted him regarding its investigation into Web sites Johns was allegedly accessing that involved child exploitation.
When interviewed July 2, Smith said Johns admitted he used credit cards to buy access to Internet sites that contained pornography and also acknowledged his definition of child pornography was naked images of subjects less than 18 years of age.
Johns gave consent to have his computer and two external hard drives examined at his home. After several images were discovered of suspected child pornography, naked females, the computer and drives were seized, Smith said.
Johns admitted that he used the phrases “topless 16” and “topless under 18” when searching the Internet for pornography, the trooper said.
Smith added that a forensic examination on one of the hard drives revealed 15 images and 10 movie files that contained naked images of children under the age of 18.
The test also identified the Google search engine Web site term that Johns used, “topless models under age 18.” Smith said the images were then examined by Dr. Andl Toroli, director of Pegasus, Carbondale, a child advocacy center, who determined the movie clips and images were child pornography.
There was no indication in the charges that Johns had any inappropriate contact with Williams Valley students, however district officials would not discuss the case Tuesday.
“On the advice of our school attorney, we have no comment,” Olga Ehrhart, Williams Valley School District superintendent, said Tuesday.
A preliminary hearing on the charges is scheduled for 9:45 a.m. Aug. 24 before Pankake. Preliminary hearings scheduled for Aug. 6, 13 and 20 were continued.
A Canadian citizen employed with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office detention center has been accused of using the Internet to solicit minors for sex.
Dominic Boulter, 51, a six-year veteran of the sheriff’s office, has been using the Web since January to seek out and chat with minors ages 13 to 17, investigators said in a Maricopa County court document.
Two girls admitted to chatting with Boulter and sending him naked pictures of themselves, which investigators found on his computer. In all, investigators have identified eight girls in different states across the country who communicated with Boulter.
Boulter, a married resident of Sun City, sent naked photos of himself as well as pornographic pictures and videos to the girls, investigators said.
Boulter told the girls he was 15, but also gave them the ages 27 and 32. He identified himself to the girls as a police officer.
Boulter in an initial interview with investigators admitted to sending harmful images to a minor and encouraging her to masturbate while they were chatting via text messages and using a web camera. He also admitted in the interview that he knew she was a minor.
Boulter did not make additional statements when investigators confronted him with evidence of communication with other girls, investigators said.
Charges against Boulter include four counts of obscene material and transmitting it to a minor; two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and two counts of unlawful age representation.
A detention officer in the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office was arrested late last week on allegations that he exchanged nude photos and lurid messages with underage girls from around the United States.
Sheriff’s detectives arrested Dominic Boulter, 51, on Thursday at a Sheriff’s Office substation in Avondale. Boulter, a Canadian citizen, was released on a $20,000 bond and ordered to surrender his passport.
According to an arrest report, Boulter began using an online service called “Phonezoo.com” in early 2005 to meet young girls between 13 and 17 years old. Boulter ultimately exchanged nude photos and text messages with at least eight underage girls from around the country. Boulter also suggested that he meet the girls in person “to engage in sex acts and to get married,” according to court documents.
During the encounters, Boulter told the girls he was 15 years old, 27 years old and 32 years old, according to the document.
Boulter admitted to detectives that he had sent “harmful images” to one underage girl and that he chatted with another via text message and Web cam as he encouraged the child to masturbate, according to court documents.
Boulter told detectives that he knew the girl was underage, the document says.
Boulter, a Sun City resident, was booked on suspicion of four counts of transmitting obscene material with a minor, two counts of luring a minor for sexual exploitation, two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and two counts of unlawful age representation, all felonies.
The court ordered Boulter to go on an electronic-monitoring program prior to his release and ordered the detention officer to avoid unsupervised contact with minors.
A statement released Monday indicated Boulter was a seven-year employee of the Sheriff’s Office and was in an “administrative segregation unit” at the Lower Buckeye Jail on a $20,000 bond.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio declined to comment on the case.
MCSO detention officer arrested for sending nude photos to teen girls
A Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office detention officer is facing charges of sexual exploitation of a minor after allegedly sending nude photos of himself to girls he met online.
Police arrested Dominic Boulter, 51, Thursday at an MCSO substation in Avondale.
According to investigators, Boulter allegedly used a Web site called PhoneZoo.com to meet girls between 13 and 17 years old. This reportedly began in early 2005.
Court paperwork indicates that he allegedly engaged in sexually explicit conversations via text messages, even exchanging nude photos with at least eight underage girls. Those girls lived all over the country.
The paperwork also shows that Boulter suggested in-person meetings. During those SMS conversations, he allegedly told the girls he was 15 years old, 27 years old and 32 years old.
According to court documents, Boulter admitted sending “harmful images” to one girl he knew to be underage. The same documents show he also told detectives that he chatted via text message and Web cam with another underage girl whom he encouraged to masturbate.
Boulter faces a variety of charges, including transmitting obscene material with a minor, luring a minor for sexual exploitation, sexual exploitation of a minor, and unlawful age representation.
Boulter, a Sun City resident who is a Canadian citizen, was released on $20,000 bond/ The judge ordered him to surrender his passport. In addition, Boulter has been placed on an electronic-monitoring system and is not allowed to have unsupervised contact with minors.
Galitsin 