Youth fail to realize online photos, video can follow them into court
Tuesday, September 25, 2012 at 07:43PM These days, even entry-level cellphones come standard with a decent digital camera and basic Internet access. That makes it easy to update your Facebook status or share pictures and video with family and friends in a matter of seconds.
But that convenience can lead to trouble, too —particularly among teenagers and young adults who don’t consider the consequences of their actions beforehand.
It’s something that Chuck Hagen, a longtime Tippecanoe County deputy prosecutor, witnesses often.
“The younger crowd uses technology to its fullest extent, including the criminal aspect,” he said. “… Everything is so easily recorded, so easily transferred, so easy to use.
“When I was in high school, it would take half an hour to load a photo. Now they just snap pictures of everything and share, at little cost.”
Take, for example, the two former Faith Christian School students, ages 13 and 14, who admitted sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl last April in a wooded area near school property. Both were sentenced to an Indiana Department of Correction facility for youth.
According to court records, prior to the sexual assault, the 14-year-old took a photo of the victim topless, and without her knowledge, in December 2011. He then shared the digital image with other juveniles and used it to blackmail the girl for four months.
The same boy also recorded the April sexual assault, which lasted 45 minutes, and later watched it with other juveniles.
Technology did not prompt the crimes, but it played a key role in the blackmail and subsequent police investigation and prosecution.
The boy’s behavior and actions fall under what the U.S. Department of Justice calls cybercrime, described as using a computer as a target, a weapon or an accessory.
According to the National Crime Prevention Council, it’s just as important for parents, schools and caregivers to teach children about “cyberethics” as it is to protect them from Internet-related crimes.
“While youth who commit cybercrimes may realize that their actions are wrong, they may not know that their Internet behaviors are illegal,” an article on the organization’s website states.