Teens exposed on phones, Internet

AKRON, Ohio • The tone alerted Brian he had received a new photo on his cell phone. As he had done a hundred times, he pushed a button and the picture appeared on his miniature screen.

But rather than an image of a friend playing soccer, or a group of his pals making goofy faces, there was a picture of a naked girl.

An isolated incident? Hardly.

Brian, who was at a local youth club with friends when this picture showed up, said he had two photos of nude girls forwarded to his cell phone in a month.

"My friend who sent them to me didn't even know the girls," the Akron, Ohio, 17-year-old said, adding that he deleted the pictures.

It's no secret that boys have been hiding beneath the bed, in the closet or behind the garage to peek at pictures in girlie magazines. But now, technology has the bare breasts of the girl across town to be viewed with the push of a button.

"If you walk into a school today, I would guess one out of three student cell phones has a nude photo," said Sgt. David Brown with the Summit County, Ohio, Sheriff's Office Investigations Bureau.

The ease of taking and sharing photos with cell phones, as well as the perceived freedom of expression found in social-networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, mean that more teens are experimenting with taking sexually provocative images of themselves.

"I think the girls do it to get attention," Brian said.

That's a notion supported by Jean Twenge, author of "Generation Me" and an associate professor of psychology at San Diego State University, who along with colleagues, conducted research that found that narcissism, or self-love, has increased over the years.

In addition, authorities believe many teens are more sexually experienced than their parents were when they were kids.

"When we were younger, we would be lucky to get our first kiss at 13," Brown said.

Sometimes teens will send pictures of themselves or friends; other times professionally shot photos of models make the rounds.

And it's not just naked girls showing up on screens.

"I knew who he was," said 17-year-old Brea of Akron, when asked whether she had ever received a naked picture on her phone. "He was 32."

Even the very young are targeted. Devin, a 12-year-old Akron boy, said he has received images of nude women on his phone, referring to the photos as "bad things." (We are not using the last names of the youths who received such photos because we wanted them to be honest about their experiences.)

There's no doubt that cell phones are a terrific way for parents to keep in touch with their families, and young people love the text-messaging option. But boys and girls who don't realize the risks often post their phone numbers on MySpace, Face-book or chat rooms.

Once they have a telephone number, sexual predators begin text-messaging kids. They say they want to be friends and begin asking sexually explicit questions.

While authorities say parents need to do a little snooping on their kids' cell phones, many youngsters are adamantly opposed to that notion. Others see the need for it - when necessary.

"I think parents should respect a kid's privacy, but some kids can't be trusted," said Charles Shank, 13, a seventh-grader at Fairlawn, Ohio's St. Hilary School.

Consider a child's maturity and social circle when deciding whether to monitor.

MySpace is wildly popular with kids. It's also a hit with families who want to keep in touch with relatives across the country. But it can spell trouble for kids unable to recognize possible dangers.

MySpace and Facebook allow computer users to create a page to be viewed online. Profiles can be made public or private, meaning that only invited guests can view detailed information and photos. But because kids believe that having lots of online friends equals popularity, many don't hesitate to invite strangers to be their pals.

With a few keystrokes, a predator who has been invited to view a child's page could learn details about a youngster, including the kind of music she likes, her favorite sport and when she's alone in the house.

"It makes her a perfect victim," Brown warned.

Kids often post when their families are on vacation - in effect advertising when the house will be empty.

Administrators at Facebook and MySpace issue warnings that remind users their sites are public, and to be cautious about giving out personal information.

"People aren't always who they say they are," reads a MySpace tip. "Be careful about adding strangers to your friends list. It's fun to connect with new MySpace friends from all over the world, but avoid meeting people in person whom you do not fully know."

The MySpace tips also warn users against lying about their age and posting anything that could be considered harassment or hate speech. Inappropriate content, the tip declares, should be reported.

Some teenagers say that among their friends who have MySpace pages, it's rare to find nude photos. But often the pictures are suggestive. To expose as much cleavage as possible, some girls wear low-cut clothing, hold the cameras above their heads and shoot downward.

Guys' pictures are generally not as revealing, though there are the occasional unzipped jeans or provocative poses.

Author Twenge says that narcissists are attracted to online social services because they love showing off their bodies and boasting about themselves. Of course, that's also got a lot to do with just being a teenager.

Twenge said that so much social interaction happens online that the child becomes the person they are portraying. "It shapes their identity," she said.

Bottom line - parents need to look at their child's MySpace and Facebook pages. If a youngster is shutting off the computer or quickly changing sites when an adult enters the room, that might mean she has something to hide.

Brown suggests that parents demand that their children share their passwords for those sites. For a teen who doesn't already have such a page but is considering creating one, a parent could help him do that.

Review the sites of your child's friends - and dig down a couple of layers. That's done by clicking on the pictures of his friends. If the photos are hidden, ask your youngster to do it for you.

Ask questions about suspicious people listed as friends, such as someone who appears to be too old to be your child's friend, or someone who's asking too many personal questions.

Cell Safety

Visit www.wiredsafety.org for lots of cell phone and Internet safety suggestions. It's possible to delete the text-messaging option from your phone service. And you can block messages from specific numbers, but you must know the number. A name is not enough.

Radar is a company that, for a charge, will keep track of all the text and photo messages a child receives. To do that, you must purchase a special phone through the company (www.mymobilewatchdog.com).

The computer a child uses should be placed in the main part of the house.

Remember that chat rooms and instant messaging are where online predators lurk. There are companies that sell monitoring software for computers. Spector Pro (www.spectorsoft.com), for example, records snapshots of every site your child visits on the computer (including MySpace and Facebook) and plays them back as a slide show.

Consequences

Cell phones are a good way to keep in contact, but many teens don't realize that some of the pictures that they are sending, or receiving, might be illegal.

In October, a Nordonia Hills, Ohio, middle-schooler found out just how serious it was when he distributed a photo of a naked 15-year-old girl to his buddies.

The 13-year-old boy was charged with delinquency by means of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented materials, a felony. In an agreement reached with the Summit County, Ohio, Prosecutor's Office, he pleaded to a lesser offense and will not have to register as a sex offender.

It's unclear whether the picture, sent from the girl's phone, was actually taken and sent to the boy by her. If the teen had taken or sent it, she could have been charged, but she was not.

Police recommended counseling for both teens.

Cases such as these are decided on an individual basis, explained Sgt. David Brown with the Summit County Sheriff's Office Investigations Bureau.