'Sexting' scare: cell phone follies.

• Author: Sullum, Jacob
• Position: Citings - Brief article

ONE-FIFTH OF the teenagers surveyed last year by CosmoGirl. com said they had transmitted or posted nude or semi-nude pictures of themselves online. Since the sample was drawn from teenagers who had volunteered to participate in surveys, it may have been biased toward exhibitionists. But the results suggest that high schools across America are rife with child pornographers.

At least, that's the way these teenagers would be treated in some jurisdictions. In January, police in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, announced that they had filed child pornography charges against six students at Greensburg Salem High School: three girls who had taken naughty photos of themselves and sent them to boys by cell phone, plus three boys who had received them. Lisa Rullo, the school's former principal and now the school district's director of student services, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, "We inform the students that it still is child pornography" even if the images are...