Oz police warn ‘sexting’ teens risk porn charges

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) have urged love struck teenagers not to text or post photos on social networking sites such as Facebook.

Police have warned that teenagers involved in 'sexting' risked a pornography conviction for texting naked photos, or posting them online.

"Not only could you be charged with child pornography offences, but that image can never be deleted and it could end up anywhere," AFP cybercrime operations manager Glen McEwan said.

According to news.com.au, the AFP told a parliamentary inquiry that creating or accessing child pornography is a federal crime even if children are sending photos of themselves.

"Children who send explicit or nude images and those who receive the images may find themselves in contravention of state, territory and commonwealth child pornography legislation," the AFP told the Victorian law reform committee''s inquiry into sexting.

Police warned parents that children as young as 12 are sending sexually explicit messages and photographs through social media and mobile phones.

According to the report, two teenage boys have been charged under the Commonwealth Criminal Code for accessing and distributing child pornography, and five others have been let off with a caution, in the past four years.

Under the Queensland criminal code, a person who distributes an "obscene computer-generated image or photograph" or provocative images of children under the age of 16 can be jailed for up to 10 years, the report added.

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