There is nothing innocent about being a pornographer. Taking pictures of yourself is not something that kids naively do. It's child pornography and those students are deservedly being punished by law. This trend is a disgusting sign of how sexualized our society has become.

You totally nailed the situation. How can the police classify this as "flirtations"? To flirt is to express an interest in a superficial way, without committing oneself seriously. Flirting is usually an innocent game to test the waters. Unless they mean flirt in the sense of flirting with danger.

Kids need to realize the decisions they make have consequences. The ongoing problem is these kids are usually protected by the law as being a juvenile and if an adult recieved the picture through forwarding, etc. this adult would then be charged. The end result would be the adult then being on the sex offender registry. Children need to be protected from predator's, however is the person truly a predator if he/she was forwarded the picture without requesting such a picture. It's sad to say but a lot of our youth have gotten out of hand and need a wake up call that this behavior is not acceptable. Not to mention if these pictures fall into the wrong hands of a true predator. I hate to think of what could happen to these kids who maybe thought they were just kidding around. It needs to stop. And let's stop it where it starts. In this case, the kids sending and taking pornographic pictures!

I like how our gnawing fear of the faceless "sexual predator" instructs all of our actions these days. Of course there are dangerous people out there, but it's disappointing that any discussion of an issue involving nudity/sexuality immediately dives to the bottom. Is there no reasonable middle ground? Should we really *felonize* teens for taking pictures of themselves?

The USA reacts to emerging teen sexuality by trying to deny its existence. So why are we surprised at the cellular phone photos in this story?

The authorities want to punish people for something that may be in poor judgement but ought not to be criminal --- and in many instances probably isn't. The notion that all nudity is harmful pornography is particularly ignorant and even inflammatory.

Felonizing teens for taking pictures of their genitals? Is that the best reaction? America's officialdom is so obsessed with sex and so ignorant about it that it often reacts in a uniformly unhelpful manner to any whiff of nudity of minors. In some cases, it's the adults who need to grow up.

There are many things that may be done to show why what the teens did may not be the best behavior; but launching a criminal investigation is, in the case of most of the teens involved, if they acted on their own without coercion, probably more harmful than what they actually did.

Although police normally arrest people for breaking laws--that's how our system works--in this case the police are trying to act prudently, refering children to their parents where they think that makes sense and considering prosecution for where that may make sense.
No action is perfect, but kudos to the Davis law enforcement officerts for trying to do what is best for the students.

My cell phone is just a simple phone without all the bells and whistles. It doesn't sing to me or take pictures. It's a good phone. If teens are going to have cell phones, then I believe parents should insist that the phones NOT be camera phones. They can still text message, but could not send pictures. I know that isn't the end-all solution, but it might help anyway.

Some people are saying the police and other adults are over-reacting. I disagree. In my opinion, the kids involved in this need to know they are doing something potentially very illegal and it could land them in Federal prison if they continue down this path. I have a friend whose brother is spending 15 years in Federal prison, and will also spend several years in State prison after that, for distributing porn, and other related charges. He's an adult with a family that is suffering greatly from this. I'm sure it didn't just begin recently in his life. It takes time to reach the point he did. These kids are just beginning, and it's a good time to stop the behavior before it gets out of hand.

The police would be better off doing something else other than harassing kids having fun.

I applaud the Davis County Attorney's Office for their efforts. They're not making most of these cases into felonies and I'd imagine that the kids who ARE going to be charged are probably doing more than just "having fun." Some kids are probably using these pictures as a tool for blackmail, bribery or worse.

We shouldn't deny the sexuality of teens, but we SHOULD teach them what is acceptable behavior and what can be potentially dangerous or, in this case, illegal.

To me, this is no different than if the kids were to get together in a room, drop their clothes and stare at each other. In any event - be it taking nude pictures or standing naked in a room together - one thing is eventually going to lead to another.

This type of occurrence is the precise reason why my kids will never have video, pic or text message phones (at least not text unless I can see what they're talking about). Kids can and WILL push the envelope every chance they get. There's nothing wrong with being curious, but when that curiosity can be dangerous, there's a bigger problem to deal with - as evident here.

To Amanda:

I'm sorry, but what you seem to say is one reason law enforcement may get a bad reputation. There's nothing illegal about nonsexualized nudity in a photo. There's nothing illegal about standing around naked. There may be nothing wrong with it either, depending on circumstances.

My main point is still that legally harassing these teens is, in most cases, probably unwarranted and possibly harmful. In cases of coercion, blackmail, etc., sure, action is warranted.

But "One thing leads to another" is a poor argument for removing people's rights. It makes assumptions that may be unwarranted. When you think they *are* warranted, by all means take action as a parent, but again, trying to stamp on less harmful aspects of teen sexuality is a dangerous practice that is in part responsible for what is happening.

I see no evidence yet that Davis law enforcement is trying to do what's best for the students. It may be. But it is also working in a culture of fear and loathing of sexuality, along with (generally) aggravated national obsession and hypocrisy in this subject.

I was pretty shocked to read that 12 men were arrested in West Valley City, apparently for hiding in the bushes and trying to hook up with strangers for sexual activities.

Apparently the last such police operation netted even more guys than the most recent one.

Our sexual mores back here in Maryland seem a lot more liberal than what some of the comments here reflect (NOT and Amanda in particular) but I've never heard of anything like what's happening in West Valley City happening anywhere on the East Coast. Maybe y'all should reflect on that a bit.

Those saying kids should not have capable phones or suggesting that phones should be taken away are not considering the most obvious option: modifying your plan. Most cell phone companies let you easily remove picture messaging or messaging all together.