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It is time to throw the phone away that is not just a phone. I am not saying this just because I am old now. All this social media and texting allows people to send nudity to just about anyone including your young kids who have smart phones and are now in deep trouble with the sexting laws in your state. In Colorado middle school kids are trading naked pictures on their phones using secret Apps designed to hide it all from their parents and teachers. Thank goodness in a way because if an adult is caught looking at the nudity all of a sudden you can be labeled a pedophile which comes with its own set of laws.  At least 100 students at Canon City High School were swapping nude photos like baseball cards.

Several students are facing suspension including so many members of the high school football team that games had to be canceled due to a lack of players available to play.  Do we need a digital version of “you show me yours and I’ll show you mine”? The problem is that most teens are unaware about 61% of students that sending nudity could land them criminal charges for trafficking in child pornography. It is a felony that could mean jail time and in the pedophile data base for life. In the last six months there have been over a dozen sexting investigations across the country.  There is no current federal sexting law but it is on the books in 20 states with widely ranging penalties. In New Jersey male students shared nude photos of female students through texting messages and social media.

In Ohio, there was a nude of a student who was just 11 years old circulating. In New York 12 students were circulating themselves involved in a sex act from King Park High School. Some parents are defending their kids saying that it is impossible to believe that their kid could get in trouble because someone else forwarded a video to their phone that they had no control in receiving it. A kid could be prosecuted for sending photos of themselves. A plea deal can be worked out so that they avoid the pedophile list.  It is scary that a kid’s life can be seriously altered over some photos. I think the laws are outdated especially if the photos are being sent only to the circle of teens consenting.

Society should be getting after the apps that are designed to look like clocks or calculators but are really ghost apps displaying the nudity.  An app called PhotoVault gives users the option of a decoy password. That means you can have a separate password for all your x rated photos. Another app called CalculatorPlus looks completely innocent but when you open it up with your password and hit the   percentage % sign you are open to a photo vault.  Let’s fine the creators of these secret  Apps.  Other Apps like Snap chat, kik, yicyap   can   exchange albums of photos instantly. The safest thing is to have a conversation with your kids to just stop it to avoid being embarrassed or busted. We all know that if there is a will, they will find a way for stupidity.