Rye MS Students Could Face Child Porn Charges After Sending Racy Picture of Classmate

Several students at Rye Middle School could be facing felony child pornography charges for viewing and emailing a screenshot of a then 11-year-old classmate exposing her breasts on a Web cam, Rye Patch has learned. 

Several students confirmed the story to Rye Patch, including one 13-year-old student who said school officials have told her that she could face a felony charge for emailing the photo to her friends.

The incident stemmed from a picture taken in September 2009. The now 12-year-old girl involved in the incident was chatting on a Web cam with a 13-year-old boy, also a student at Rye Middle School, when she lifted up her blue shirt and exposed both her breasts to the boy, on whom she had a crush, sources told Rye Patch. 

The photo, which was described to Rye Patch, has been distributed throughout both Rye Middle and High School via email and texts. "Hundreds of kids" have seen the photo, including students at Rye Country Day School and in the Harrison, Rye Neck, Blind Brook and Greenwich school districts, sources told Patch. 

School officials have confiscated students' cell phones to see whether they had the picture of the 12-year-old girl on their phones, the sources said. School officials ultimately deleted the photo from several students' phones and returned the phones to these students.

Many students have been called into the guidance office and the office of Rye Middle School Principal Ann Edwards to be warned that their involvement in the matter could have serious legal consequences. School officials told students that anyone who has seen the picture can be charged with distributing child pornography, sources said.

School officials notified Rye Police after the 12-year-old girl told them this week that a compromising photo of her was being distributed around the school by a 13-year-old classmate who dislikes her, the 13-year-old girl claims.

Rye Middle School Principal Ann Edwards and Rye Police were unreachable for comment Wednesday night.

The 13-year-old girl told Patch Wednesday that she saw the photo for the first time this weekend. She and several other sources told Patch that the Web cam screenshot clearly shows the 13-year-old boy in the image within a smaller screen. They said the boy took the screenshot and began distributing it to his friends. The photo then spread like wildfire across schools in Rye and the surrounding area.

The incident is the latest story involving young children exposing themselves using digital media. "Sexting" has become a popular term for distributing revealing photos and sexually explicit messages via mobile text messaging.

Several recent cases have highlighted the dangers of "sexting," including a case in Pennsylvania where a pair of 13-year-olds faced child pornography charges for taking a completely nude photo of themselves, which was distributed throughout their school.

In another case, 18-year-old Philip Alpert was convicted of child pornography after distributing a revealing photo of his underage girlfriend after they got into a verbal fight.

According to a recent New York Times article, some laws regarding "sexting" may need to be rethought.

Alpert was added to Florida's sex offender registry after sending the photo of his nude 16-year-old girlfriend, but some experts argue that this did not constitute child pornography. They argue that "sexting" is the byproduct of teens having so many choices about how to consume media and interact with one another online. They said that teens who engage in "sexting" should be treated and prosecuted differently from pedophiles, sexual predators and adult pornographers.

This story originally ran on the Rye Patch, check back there for updates.