Kids Face Sexting Charges

JANUARY 28--A pair of Indiana middle school students are the latest minors to face felony charges for allegedly "sexting" naked photos to each other. The students--a 13-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy--were charged in connection with an incident last week at Ben Franklin Middle School in Valparaiso.

The students are each facing felony child exploitation and possession of child pornography charges, according to this police report. The case against the minors began last week when the girl had her cell phone confiscated after it rang during class. Crying, she told a teacher that "a 6th grade boy had sent her a dirty picture and she was going to get into trouble."

A subsequent investigation determined that the boy had sent her a photo of his "exposed genitals" and that she had responded by texting him a shot of her "exposed body and breasts." The girl, the report notes, showed the explicit photo of the boy to a friend of hers, a seventh grade student at a local Catholic school. After conferring with prosecutors, the juveniles were charged with the two felony counts. (3 pages)