13-year-old detained on child-porn charges

The Texas boy was one of an unspecified number of kids at his middle school who received a nude picture of another student on his cellphone, Dallas-area station WFAA reports. The 8th-grade girl in the photo had taken the picture of herself and sent it to "multiple guys," another female student told WFAA. So far, the boy is the only recipient who has been charged. "Police and the school district are not discussing actions against any of the other students," according to WFAA. The boy was "arrested Monday and suspended from school," then "spent the night in a juvenile detention center." The report does not say why the boy was singled or who informed the police. I'll let you know if any more info on this disturbing story emerges.

Felony charges for teen in nude photo posting

A 17-year-old boy in La Crosse, Wisc., has been charged with possession of child pornography, sexual exploitation of a child, and defamation for posting nude photos of a 16-year-old girl on his MySpace page, the Chicago Tribune reports. "According to the criminal complaint, Phillips was told he could be jailed for posting the photos but told police he would still keep them on the page." According to MyFoxTwinCities.com, the girl, his ex-girlfriend, had taken the photos of herself "but was upset and didn’t give him permission to distribute the photos anywhere else." The boy is being held in a county jail "on a $1,000 cash bond and has a preliminary hearing set for May 28." According to some reports, the photos were sent to him via cellphone (see this on nude photo-sharing). In a similar case reported last August, a teen was sentenced to 30 days in prison on child abuse charges (see this item).

Teen-distributed child porn in Pa.

One student at Parkland High School in the Allentown, Pa., area started a group on Facebook called "Parkland ... Where Pornstars Are Born." He's referring to two photos taken two months ago - one a naked photo of a girl taken by the girl herself and the other of another girl engaged in a sex act with a boy taken by someone else - that circulated around the school via cellphone, the Associated Press reports. "Authorities began investigating about two weeks ago after some students notified school administrators," the AP adds. It says a district attorney said that at least 40 students believed to have received the photos on their phones won't be prosecuted. Police have been trying to stop their circulation, but students the AP interviewed said the distribution has gone well beyond Allentown - "to Temple and Harvard universities, to a high school in Bethlehem, even to someone in Oregon." I doubt the girl who took the self-portrait knew the distribution of her photo (or that of the other girl) was potentially a federal felony. "About 3,200 students are enrolled at Parkland, a perennial football powerhouse that draws students from three largely wealthy townships outside Allentown." Here's coverage from the Allentown Morning Call and here's a letter from Parkland High School to parents.