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Teens bare all on cell phones

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By The Associated Press | Friday, June 13, 2008 |

Passing notes in study hall or getting your best friend to ask a boy if he likes you or, you know, likes you, is so last century. Nowadays, some teenagers are snapping naked pictures of themselves on their cell phones and sending them to their friends.

That’s right, naked pictures.

Now, before you say to yourself: “Where was this when I was in school?” know that many of these pictures are falling into the wrong hands — or, worse, everyone’s hands, via the Internet — and leading to criminal charges.

Some parents are aghast.

“I just don’t understand why kids would do a stupid thing like that,” said Rochelle Hoins of Castle Rock, Colo., where 18 students in her twin sons’ middle school sent around nude pictures of themselves last year. “We did dumb things when we were kids, but not like that,” added Hoins, whose sons were not involved.

Similar cases have been reported in New Jersey, New York, Alabama, Utah, Pennsylvania, Texas and Connecticut.

“It used to be that kids would make mistakes and it was local and singular and everyone knew it was part of growing up,” said Catherine Davis, a PTA co-president in Westport, Conn., who had a frank talk with her two sons after several students’ nude self-portraits recently spread through the wealthy New York City bedroom community. “Now a stupid adolescent mistake can take on major implications and go on their record for the rest of their lives.”

In La Crosse, Wis., a 17-year-old boy recently was charged with child pornography, sexual exploitation of a child and defamation for allegedly posting nude photos of his 16-year-old ex-girlfriend on his MySpace page. The girl had taken the pictures with her cell phone at her mother’s home and e-mailed them to the boyfriend, authorities said.

Psychologists said the phenomenon reflects typical teenage hormones and lack of judgment, with technology multiplying the potential for mischief. It also may reflect a teenage penchant for exhibitionism, as demonstrated on MySpace and countless other Web sites and blogs.

In suburban Syracuse, N.Y., several teenage girls sent naked pictures on their phones to their boyfriends only to learn that another boy had collected them from the Web and was trying to sell a DVD of them.