A 17-year-old boy from Anne Arundel County, Md., was charged as a juvenile in July with distributing and possessing child pornography, the Baltimore Sun reports.
The boy allegedly distributed pictures of girls under age 18 in sexually explicit poses, which referenced several high schools in the county, on Instagram.
Police have learned that the pictures were either taken by the girls themselves or by a third party with their consent. Photos were sent to others by text message or posted on social networking sites, the Sun reported.
We encourage anyone who becomes aware of this type of activity on social networks to report it immediately to either local police or one of the following sites:
Police in the county advised parents to explain to their kids “that it is never acceptable” to sext, the Sun quoted an April press release as saying. “As soon as you hand your child a digital device, be it a phone or a tablet or a computer, you should begin the discussion that sending or receiving inappropriate pictures is never okay, nor is sending explicit sexual messages.”