This bulletin presents a typology of "sexting" episodes (images of minors created by minors that could qualify as child pornography under applicable criminal statutes), based on a review of just over 550 cases obtained from a national survey of law enforcement agencies.
The cases all involved sexual images produced by youth. The analysis determined that the episodes could be broadly divided into two types: "aggravated" and "experimental." "Aggravated" incidents involved criminal or abusive elements that went beyond the creation, sending, or possession of youth-produced sexual images. These additional elements included adult involvement or criminal or abusive behavior by minors, such as sexual abuse; extortion; threats; malicious conduct stemming from interpersonal conflicts; or the creation, sending, or showing of images without the knowledge or against the will of the minor who was pictured. By contrast, "experimental" incidents involved youth taking pictures of themselves which were sent to established boyfriends or girlfriends. Also classified as "experimental" were incidents in which the sender of the image was attempting to stir the romantic interest of the youth who was the recipient, or for attention-seeking. The "experimental" incidents involved no criminal behavior beyond the creation or sending of images with no apparent malice and no unwilling participation by the youth who were pictured. This study is based on cases handled during 2008 and 2009 by a national sample of law enforcement agencies participating in the Third National Juvenile Online Victimization Study. 1 figure and 24 references