True Story

True Story #1    

“Katelyn was 15 years old and in love with her 16-year-old boyfriend, Dillon. So, when he asked her to take a naked picture of herself with her cell phone and send it to him, she did. She thought this would be something just the two of them could share and that doing so would show him how much she loved him. But when Dillon broke up with her three weeks later, she started noticing kids at her school giggling behind her back. She soon realized why this was happening when her two best friends came to her and showed her their cell phones, which contained the picture she had sent to Dillon. Her friends told her that the picture had been forwarded to them…and that almost everyone in school had seen the photo or now had it on their phone…She was called printable names like slut, whore, and easy…Katelyn was devastated. Her grades dropped and she no longer wanted to go to school or socialize with other kids…”

True Story #2

“Heather sent a copy of the picture only to John and he was discrete enough not to share that picture with anyone else, but he did not delete it from his cell phone. John took the cell phone to school and was caught text messaging during class in violation of school policy. The cell phone was confiscated and school personnel believed it to be necessary to look through the phone and found the picture. School authorities decided to report the matter to the police and to contact John’s parents. His parents wanted the police to also investigate whether charges should be filed against Heather as the picture was taken at her request with her cell phone.”

True Story #3

“In June 2009, thirteen-year-old Hope Witsell took a topless photo of herself with the camera feature of her cell phone and sent the photo via text message to a boy she liked. The boy then sent the photo via text message to additional recipients who distributed the photo via their cell phones to recipients at Witsell’s middle school and a nearby high school. Students at Witsell’s middle school bullied her about the photo in person and over the Internet. Witsell began cutting herself and journaling about the harassment, and in September 2009, she committed suicide.”

True Story #4

“In march 2008, eighteen-year-old Jessica Logan went on a spring-break trip to Florida with friends. While on vacation, Logan took a nude photo of herself with the camera feature of her cell phone and sent the photo via text message to her eighteen-year-old boyfriend, Ryan Salyers. After Logan and Salyers ended their relationship, Salyers sent the photo via text message to additional receipients who distributed the photo via their cell phones to students at four different high schools. Students at the four schools incessantly harassed Logan about the photo, calling her a ‘slut,’ ‘whore,’ and other names in person, over the phone, and over the Internet. Logan became depressed, and on July 3, 2008, she committed suicide.”

True story #5

“Eighteen-year-old Phillip Alpert and his sixteen-year-old girlfriend dated for over two years in high school. During their relationship, Alpert’s girlfriend sent him e-mails containing need photos that she took of herself with a digital camera. In a fit of anger following an argument with his girlfriend, Alpert signed onto her e-mail account and sent the photos to dozens of his girlfriend’s friends and members of her family. The local police arrested Alpert and charged him with distributing child pornography. A judge sentenced Alpert to five years of probation and forced him to register as a sex offender pursuant to Florida law. Alpert must continue to register as a sex offender until he is forty-three.”