After a texting scandal involving children as young as 11 years old, a suburban Philadelphia district attorney addressed sexting and how it can lead to cyber-bullying.
The investigation began in April of 2015 when Tredyffrin Township Police received reports that nude photos of students at Valley Forge Middle School and Tredyffrin-Easttown Middle School were created, sent, stored and viewed by several teens and pre-teens both at their homes and at school. While the images and videos were sent by students to other minors in most cases, in some cases the images were sent to unidentified people who met in cyber chats on various social networking apps, police said.
In one case a student offered to sell an intimate image of a classmate to another student, said investigators. A teen boy also took an image of a sex act off the Internet, sent it to his classmates and claimed the image was of a female student, said police. The boy’s action led to an assault at the Tredyffrin-Easttown Middle School, according to police.
“Bullying continues,” said Tredyffrin Township Police Detective Sergeant Todd Bereda. “In this day and age it’s cyber-bullying. And this is a perfect example of what can happen when people aren’t paying attention.”
Three students between the ages of 11 and 15 were arrested and charged with distribution of child pornography as a result of the investigation.
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“In making these arrests there’s a statement made that parents beware of what you’re children or doing and how they’re doing it because the next victim could be your own,” Detective Sgt. Bereda said.
Visit the Netsmartz Workshop and Crime Watch websites for tips on keeping your children safe from cyber-bullying.
