Teens warned about dangers of sexting from Crown prosecutor

A Crown prosecutor is cautioning teens to think twice before snapping an intimate photograph for themselves or a friend, even as a joke. 

Karen Lee, the lead counsel assigned to the internet child exploitation unit in New Brunswick, said many young people have no idea they're doing something illegal when they store those types of images on their phones and share them

Lee said the law is clear on what is considered a crime: it's illegal for anyone under 18 to take those kinds of photographs of themselves or other people.

"The Criminal Code prohibits any sexualized image of a child, whether they be nude or in a sexualized situation, to be taken, possessed, looked at or shared," Lee said.

"So for children, even just taking the photo is illegal, according to the Criminal Code."

Lee said she sees these cases regularly in her job, particularly among young people.

She said it has a lot to do with the technology and the ease with which people can not only take photos on their phones, but the illusion of privacy that comes with that technology. 

"It's become common," she said.

Young people who share intimate photographs on social media have no idea how easy it is for those photographs to end up in the hands of child pornographers, Lee said.

And once those images are online there is very little prosecutors or police can do to get them back. 

Teens need to start policing their own behaviour in the age of smartphones, the veteran Crown prosecutor said, and parents need to be more aware.

"Parents and children need to know that once a picture is out in the stratosphere, you can't just get it back. A lot of the complaints come because they really just want the image back," she said.