14 year old boy criminalised over naked selfie

Children feel coerced into certain behaviours by peer pressure. The idea that shaved pubes are expected for instance; or consent to oral sex. If you don't go along with these things you are seen as a nerd. Above all else our teenagers (both boys and girls) need to have self-respect in order to resist the pressure - that is the best gift we can give them as they grow up; and it is not easy.

At fourteen they are well aware of the implications of using a phone in this way. Teenagers are more promiscuous than they were in previous decades. Would a teenager walk down the street naked ? then why would they send photos of themselves naked ? Time they started taking responsibility for their actions.

No, they don't deserve what they got! They're just silly foolish showing off teenagers! Let's face it, we've all had them, but in the days before social media they couldn't get into quite such serious trouble, and certainly need to be made aware of that. Nothing more.

Exactly Lg. I don't for one moment he was completely relaxed all over when he took the picture. It was wrong to send the picture to any girl, and she was wrong for sharing it. They deserve what they have got. Time to start thinking kids.

Yes - I agree that is it over-egging the pudding. We do not know the nature of the photo - if he was just naked, then that does not seem obscene to me. If he was actively sexually engaged in a solo way, then that might be considered obscene I guess.

Young people need to be able to make mistakes (as opposed to committing serious crimes) without receiving a criminal record - it may be that these sorts of photos are the modern equivalent of stealing sweets from Woolworths for a previous generation. The presence of social media, mobile phones, tablets etc. make possible unfortunate actions that were not there before, when young people would have been exploring sexually in different ways.

Yes, I think you've hit the nail on the head, nigglynellie. I'm sure he had no idea of the possible consequences and a severe reprimand would have been far more appropriate.

It was a very stupid and serious thing to have done, but, this is a boy of 14, and young people have a tendency to be thoughtless and very silly, so I would have thought that a severe reprimand both for him and the girl concerned by the police pointing out exactly what was at stake here in the event of a repeat performance would have been sufficient. A criminal record with all it's implications is surely over egging the pudding, particularly as no prosecution has taken place and as it would appear no offense caused.

I imagine the police consider that she is as guilty as the boy in 'distributing obscene images' Ana.

Who would have thought, all those years ago with the inception of the mobile phone, what a can of worms was being opened?

The girl he sent the photo to had the presence of mind to save it within the 10 seconds before it would be deleted, and send copies to her friends, so it doesn't sound as though she felt harassed.

Apparently her details are also being kept on the police file, and those of another girl.

It seems that by sending the photo to someone else, he is guilty of distributing obscene images. And just by taking the photo and keeping it on his own phone he is guilty of making and, I imagine, storing obscene images. I can't remember the actual legal terminology for such 'crimes', but it is something like this.

There is an issue about harrasing the girl with his naked photo. Poor girl we don't know if she was even interested in him in which case it was intrusive.
Hypothetically if such a lad had been pestering or bulling this girl previously it could appear very threatening.
He is yet another young boy with his brain between his legs.

I was a bit put out that his mum said something like "its what they do nowadays". I would have hoped the mum would have taken a tougher line with her son. It is a really stupid thing to put such stuff on social media.

The police keep a lot of intelligence about what I will refer to as "dodgy geezers" Where there is strong suspicion about groomers, sexual predators etc, even if they have never been convicted. This is important with regard to possible sexual abuse issues as those who start this behaviour often progress.

There was a police officer on the Today program saying that if there are no more signs of such behaviour, it should be perfectly possible for discretion to be exercised if he ever needed a " Disclosure and Barring" check because of his job.

This is about safeguarding. There were suspicions about the behaviour of the Soham murderer in a previous police force are but no crime reported so this was not passed on in a "Disclosure and Barring Service" check. One hopes that police forces are much better at doing this now.

I don't understand the crime. It was a photo he took to send to a girl who doesn't appear to have been upset upon receiving it. In fact she happily sent it on to other people and also seems to have committed a crime.

Does this mean that if DH decided to remove all his clothes and parade around in front of me it wouldn't be a crime but if he then took a photo of himself and sent it to me then it would?

Also how can a crime be recorded against him when he hasn't been prosecuted? Sounds like a worrying change in how we can be criminalised without actually being taken to court.

It concerns me as well, Indinana. I'm very surprised that the police apparently have the power to 'log' an alleged offence without arrest or prosecution and that this record is open for 10 years. Should we 'seal' juvenile records the way they do in the USA except in the case of serious crimes? I'm also rather alarmed that the school chose to deal with it rather than letting the parents know and leaving it to them.