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United Kingdom Communications Crime Technology

14-Year-Old Boy Placed On Police Register After Sending Naked Picture To Classmate 261

Ewan Palmer reports: A teenage boy in the UK has had a crime of making and distributing indecent images recorded against him after he sent a naked picture of himself to one of his female classmates. The 14-year-old was not formally arrested after he sent the explicit image to a girl of the same age via Snapchat. The police file against the boy will now remain active for 10 years, meaning any future employer conducting an advanced Criminal Records Bureau check will be aware of the incident. However, it is not clear whether a police file was recorded for the girl who saved and shared the image. Under new legislation, if she had been over 18, the girl could have been convicted under the so called 'revenge porn' law in the UK.
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14-Year-Old Boy Placed On Police Register After Sending Naked Picture To Classmate

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  • by gurps_npc ( 621217 ) on Thursday September 03, 2015 @04:34PM (#50453961) Homepage
    Please? I mean here are two perfectly innocent young children just BEGGING to be thrown to the judicial wolves, torn apart, consumed, and eaten by ridiculous laws that pretend to protect them.
    • it is far easier to classify someone than to understand him; or even to make the effort.
    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Obfuscant ( 592200 )

      Please? I mean here are two perfectly innocent young children

      Huh? One of them is sending unsolicited porn to a girl he knows, the other is spreading that porn to all her friends. Neither is "perfectly innocent."

      just BEGGING to be thrown to the judicial wolves, torn apart, consumed, and eaten

      One of them is reported to have been put on the list of people who have been accused of crimes. The other we don't know what happened to. Neither one is being charged with anything, neither one is being "thrown to the judicial wolves" or "eaten."

      I'm pretty sure that a fourteen year old boy should know it isn't appropriate to send naked pictures of himself

      • by Intrepid imaginaut ( 1970940 ) on Thursday September 03, 2015 @05:27PM (#50454227)

        I'm pretty sure that a fourteen year old boy should know it isn't appropriate to send naked pictures of himself to others.

        Are you taking the piss?

      • by adolf ( 21054 ) <flodadolf@gmail.com> on Thursday September 03, 2015 @05:42PM (#50454315) Journal

        Huh?

        1. We don't know that it was unsolicited.

        2. We don't know that he's not innocent or normal. I remember when I was a normal-ish 14-year-old boy. I can't honestly say that my mentality at that time would have precluded me sending such pictures in such a way because the technology didn't exist, but I can say that as an adult I've never felt compelled to photograph my bits for sharing with others. But again, at 14: Maybe, if I had the tools.

        3. We don't know her intent in distribution. I think that a teenaged girl would likely be all giggles about the thing, without malicious intent. (Have you met a teenaged girl? My own is 14.)

        4. We don't know why he chose Snapchat. Perhaps simply because it was convenient, and he was simply familiar with the interface -- we cannot assume, based on what we know, that it was a deliberate decision driven by Snapchat's default nature of deleting things after a short time.

        5. We don't know that she's some crypto-savvy script kiddie who went through extensive measures to bypass Snapchat's security. For all we know she did the obvious and simplest thing: She used one handheld device to take a photograph of an image on another handheld device. (The analog hole does not exclude Snapchat.)

        That normal, innocent kids might be smart and clever does not mean that their every motivation is evil. Furthermore, normal, innocent kids making unwise decisions is a hallmark of normal, innocent kids: They're kids, FFS.

      • by mwehle ( 2491950 )

        I'm pretty sure that a fourteen year old boy should know it isn't appropriate to send naked pictures of himself to others.

        Well then whoever should we be sending naked pictures of ourselves to, if not others?

      • by epyT-R ( 613989 )

        One of them is reported to have been put on the list of people who have been accused of crimes.

        Societies with 'lists' like this hardly have good track records for justice of any sort. So much for responsibility, right? ..and it looks like the girl wasn't listed for spreading the pic. So much for consequences if you've got the right genitalia, right?

        As far as I can see, the only serious consequences are those that people who think like you chose to impose. Perhaps you should consider the consequences of that.

        • ..and it looks like the girl wasn't listed for spreading the pic. So much for consequences if you've got the right genitalia, right?

          Wrong.

          [The boy's] details - along with those of the girl involved and another teenager - had been added to a police intelligence database and could be stored for at least 10 years.

  • Hey, Teacher! Leave the kids alone!

  • by UnknownSoldier ( 67820 ) on Thursday September 03, 2015 @04:44PM (#50454023)

    ... that they could be classified as a pedophile for viewing child pornography??

    Wait till the kids learn how to abuse the law and fuck* every grownup!!

    Where the hell is common sense?

    * Not literally, but legally

    • ... that they could be classified as a pedophile for viewing child pornography??

      Wait till the kids learn how to abuse the law and fuck* every grownup!!

      Where the hell is common sense?

      * Not literally, but legally

      In the U.S., we would have charged both the boy and the girl with soliciting child pornography and cast them down with the sodomites.

      • In the U.S., we would have charged both the boy and the girl with soliciting child pornography and cast them down with the sodomites.

        Dang it. I meant distributing. What slashdot? Still no edit button? What is this, 1970? I know, I know, preview. But in preview the brain is still seeing what it thinks it told you to type.

        • Dang it. I meant distributing. What slashdot? Still no edit button?

          Nope. It fouls up the moderation system.

          That's usually where the conversation ends, but we could actually consider that fact a moment. Ok, it fouls up the moderation system. Something that has been modded up could be edited after the fact into something totally different than what was originally modded. (And would be. Don't kid yourself.)

          But this observation does uncover a perfectly reasonable modification. Allow editing until a post has been modded. That actually seems completely reasonable. And mo

  • So what would happen if this happened without digital means? What would happen if a boy at age 14 for instance exposed himself to a girl that was 14. What would happen if a girl exposed herself to a boy that was 14. What would happen if the same sex exposed themself to the same sex? What would happen if they both did it at the same time (boy/girl boy/boy girl/girl)? Normally I would think this would be a family issue where the two families would deal with it privately. If there is some conflict and it
  • Makes sense (Score:5, Insightful)

    by theCzechGuy ( 1888010 ) on Thursday September 03, 2015 @04:48PM (#50454043)
    Boy sends a naked picture to a girl, gets a record. She then sends the picture to host of other people with the clear intent to hurt the boy, but that's fine. How was he distributing the picture and she wasn't? That's just... exactly how the world works. Carry on.
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      It isn't that she didn't distribute the picture. She did, but women are not responsible for their actions. That's why they have a male guardian and can't vote.

      • by tsotha ( 720379 )
        In a legal sense, women seem to have no agency. A male teacher sleeps with one of his 12 year old students gets decades of hard time. A woman? Four months probation. Because patriarchy.
    • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 03, 2015 @05:17PM (#50454187)

      Boy sends a naked picture to a girl, gets a record. She then sends the picture to host of other people with the clear intent to hurt the boy, but that's fine. How was he distributing the picture and she wasn't? That's just... exactly how the world works. Carry on.

      Well to punish the girl might dissuade her from working in technology. We can't have that now can we?

      • Well to punish the girl might dissuade her from working in technology. We can't have that now can we?

        Well, she'll just work in justice then. You don't need an understanding of technology there. And that way, she later can get back at her geeky classmate by punishing him harshly for repairing a friends' computer...

    • It's not how the world works, it's how a justice system which has been completely warped by feminist legbeards works. Think I'm kidding? Think again [dailymail.co.uk]. If the degree to which an out and out hate movement has co-opted legislation and law enforcement doesn't appall you, it should.

      • However, his mother was told her son's details - along with those of the girl involved and another teenager - had been added to a police intelligence database and could be stored for at least 10 years.

      • feminist legbeards

        new band name. thanks!

        (seriously, I never heard that phrase before.)

    • Perhaps you should read the article:

      his mother was told her son's details - along with those of the girl involved and another teenager - had been added to a police intelligence database and could be stored for at least 10 years.

    • She then sends the picture to host of other people with the clear intent to hurt the boy, but that's fine.

      Nobody said that was fine. They said that were she over 18 she could have been charged with "revenge porn" -- which is saying that it isn't fine, just that she's too young to be charged. And they didn't say she didn't end up on the same list, only that there was no information available to know she had.

      How was he distributing the picture and she wasn't?

      She was, and the article said she was.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by PRMan ( 959735 )
      He's male. She's female. Therefore he's a guilty perv and she's completely innocent.
      • Therefore he's a guilty perv and she's completely innocent.

        Except he's not guilty of anything and she's also been recorded in the same database.

        [The boy's] details - along with those of the girl involved and another teenager - had been added to a police intelligence database and could be stored for at least 10 years.

    • Or y'know, a girl can take pictures of herself, send them to her boyfriend, and be charged for sex crimes against herself. It's not just a gender thing - it's much broader stupidity.

      http://www.fayobserver.com/new... [fayobserver.com]

  • by silas_moeckel ( 234313 ) <silas&dsminc-corp,com> on Thursday September 03, 2015 @05:06PM (#50454117) Homepage

    Isn't that impossible she must be a hacker. So she distributed kiddy porn and was an evil hacker violating snapchats TOS. Oh thats right the SJW's would call charging her abusing the victim.

    It's some young teenage kids trying to figure out sex it should have not made it past the headmaster and parents. It's not like it should have been shocking the UK age of consent is what 16? Mind you the two of them can have sex without legal issue throw snapchat into the mix and now it's a serious crime?

    • Mind you the two of them can have sex without legal issue throw snapchat into the mix and now it's a serious crime?

      Maybe it's that that's the problem? Kind of defines deviancy down, doesn't it?

  • It's nice that the police said:

    "'Sexting' may seem like a harmless or normal activity but there are many risks involved. Once circulated, the sender loses all control of that image and can cause significant distress when it gets into wider hands. It is essential that we work, alone and alongside partners such as schools and families, to intervene early and prevent young people from becoming both the victims and perpetrators of crime."

    How nice of the police to recognize that sexting has risks, and then they demonstrate that the police response is the biggest risk by filing a police report that will follow him for the next 10 years.

    • It's nice that the police said:

      "'Sexting' may seem like a harmless or normal activity but there are many risks involved. Once circulated, the sender loses all control of that image and can cause significant distress when it gets into wider hands. It is essential that we work, alone and alongside partners such as schools and families, to intervene early and prevent young people from becoming both the victims and perpetrators of crime."

      How nice of the police to recognize that sexting has risks, and then they demonstrate that the police response is the biggest risk by filing a police report that will follow him for the next 10 years.

      This is really dumb. This is like being arrested for "accessory to burglary" if you fail to lock your door.

  • by mentil ( 1748130 ) on Thursday September 03, 2015 @05:09PM (#50454139)

    I RTFA (I know)
    He wasn't placed on a sex offender's register (last I heard, the UK declined to implement one), rather a registry of people who have had legal complaints filed with the police agency. Someone (probably a tip from whatever social network the picture was shared on) notified the police about it, and a public record was automatically made about that notification. The police didn't press charges, as they claim to be lenient about teen sexting; an actual modification to the law would be a better option than selective enforcement, however. A bigger problem is that a publicly-searchable registry exists of people who have been accused of a crime, even if the police thought there wasn't enough of a case/cause to arrest or prosecute them. Most people never get called on their 3 felonies per day, so it can be used to single out people no more guilty than typical.

    • by Shimbo ( 100005 )

      We do have a sex offenders register but we don't have felonies in the UK. As regards the public searchability of it - it's not exactly public information but might be disclosed to a potential employer, if relevant. So he wanted to become a teacher, it would be a problem but it wouldn't be disclosed to everyone who asked.

      On the existance of a 'suspicion' registry - it's a tricky issue. Often people convicted of serious sexual offences leave a trail of prior allegations and suspicions behind them. It's tempti

      • by khallow ( 566160 )

        It's tempting to take the position that until something is proved in court the only fair thing is to do nothing about it. I'm not sure that gets the balance right - you risk harm to innocent parties in either case, so there is no good solution.

        It's not just tempting, it's the right thing to do. The problem here is what's the threshold of proof to get on a list of "suspicion" registry? If it's not just as firm as actual conviction of a crime, then it's punishment without due process, perhaps libel as well.

        A free society has no place for public accusations or suspicions without evidence that can be gamed by anyone with a grudge, particularly the authorities.

        Obviously, this is over the top in this case - sadly police have got more process driven, and common sense has gone out of the window a bit.

        There's one word to describe this situation - unaccountability. Established procedures can be used to insure that some common task, such as arresting someone, is done right. But they can also be used to evade responsibility. Zero tolerance policies and similarly heavy-handed responses no matter how slight the issue are an example of procedure gone wrong.

    • by dryeo ( 100693 )

      Most people never get called on their 3 felonies per day, so it can be used to single out people no more guilty than typical.

      Most people don't do 3 felonies a day. I personally haven't done a felony in over 30 years (when I last visited the USA) and 95% of the worlds population seldom if ever visit the "Land of the Free" which is the only place that has felons (a class of people who have their rights curtailed forever, originally so the King could take their property (fief)).

  • by watermark ( 913726 ) on Thursday September 03, 2015 @05:14PM (#50454173)

    This is still better than the US. He would have had to register as a sex offender, which is a life-long sentence. He would not allowed to live near a school or attend a school, and would have to notify his neighbors that he is a registered sex offender...for the rest of his life.

  • Won't someone please think of the CHILDREN?
  • by niks42 ( 768188 ) on Thursday September 03, 2015 @05:27PM (#50454223)
    .. made some good points.

    The school raised it with the police, and they are duty bound to record the 'offence'. However, that is no guarantee it would ever surface again. In the future, if young man decides to go for a job in public service - a policeman, teacher, lollypop man, chat show host - whatever, then the process would be:

    Potential employer would ask for a Criminal Records Bureau check. Check would come back positive, at which point the police have the right to decide it was too long ago, too trivial etc and can ignore the finding. Second, they would contact the young man and tell him that they have received a request, and that the CRB check has turned something up.
    Young man then has the option to challenge the CRB check, and it may at that point go no further. Only if those two hurdles are tripped over would the result return to the potential employer, who themselves might decide it is all bollocks and ignore it.

    Who is at fault here? The boy for doing something childish? Hardly. Apart from the inconvenience of a few photons, it is unlikely to be a novel picture that causes a particular offence. The girl for doing something irresponsible as well? Dubious, really. Even if she forwarded it with a bit of libellous writing attached, hardly the crime of the century. The fault surely lay with the teacher for propagating the pain, and not dealing with it sensibly in loco parentis.
    • by quenda ( 644621 )

      The fault surely lay with the teacher for propagating the pain, and not dealing with it sensibly in loco parentis.

      You can't just blame the teacher in isolation. The UK, more than anywhere else, has long been in the grip of a "peds under the bed" hysteria.
      It is a society that may have made the teacher afraid for he job if she did not report it.

    • The fault surely lay with the teacher for propagating the pain, and not dealing with it sensibly in loco parentis.

      The teacher is a single person working in a larger system. I ask you, what would have happened if the teacher didn't propagate this up the chain and news got out? Do you think people would accept the appropriate judgement of the teacher? In much of the Western world we'd be asking for the teacher's head and to remove them from the classroom.

      The problem is the wider system that attempts to repress sexuality out of what I can't imagine as being anything other than fear. Remember we're talking about a country

  • Objectivity, lost. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 03, 2015 @06:03PM (#50454405)

    There are 3 things to observe about this case:
    1. The kid is a dumb idiot and needs to be punished for sending naked pics.
    2. The girl is a dumb idiot and needs to be punished for further forwarding and spreading the pics.
    3. The police are dumb idiots who have such a low standard, and such low quality as a police force, that publicizing and making a police statement out of a god damn random teenager over naked pics is something they are more proud of; instead of seeking to publicize and make statements about real crime with real criminals that would actually require effort and principles (in the case of corrupt politicians which there are plenty of).

    Captcha: excrete
    How fitting.

  • The police determine the guilt/innocence of a suspect? And they determine the remedial and/or punitive measures to be taken?

    What did you folks do with your courts? Please don't tell me you closed them. I thought those wigs were cool.

    • The police determine the guilt/innocence of a suspect? And they determine the remedial and/or punitive measures to be taken?

      No, they don't. What made you think that?

      No-one's been found guilty of anything. Events occured. The police were inolved. They have made a record of this.

  • I guess I'm supposed to be shocked by the headline? Oh noos.

    If you'd prefer he get an @ss-whupping or psychiatric treatment instead, OK, I guess that would work.

  • If the girl shared the pictures, she's just as guilty and should be treated the same.

    • And so she was:

      [The boy's] details - along with those of the girl involved and another teenager - had been added to a police intelligence database and could be stored for at least 10 years.

  • As out of the way as one does, he was convicted of a sex crime.

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