Cell phone smut

Crime | Authorities attempt to deal with the new trend of teenage “sexting” | Daniel James Divine

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Ben Hunt is 14 years old, likes basketball, and attends Lawrence School in Falmouth, Mass. One day last January he turned on his cell phone to discover someone had sent him a photo of a 13-year-old female schoolmate. It was explicit—the girl had lifted her shirt and revealed herself. But instead of deleting the photo and informing a teacher or parent, Hunt did something foolish: He forwarded it to a friend.

Now Hunt and five other boys from his middle school face charges for possession or dissemination of child pornography. Those charges normally carry felony status, and if the boys are convicted as such, they could have to provide DNA samples to the state and register as sex offenders. Hunt's dad, Brian Hunt, isn't happy about that possibility. "My son hasn't even had a chance to try to get a job at McDonald's, and this would be something that would stay on his record," he told ABCNews.com last month.