With sexting in the news and it seems no shortage of over zealous prosecutors willing to pursue child porn charges this story comes as no surprise. It does point out however how much current child porn laws need to be changed.

Myself? Call me old fashioned but I don't see many reasons a child needs a phone capable of taking and sending photos. But that's a thread for the parenting forum.

Here is the story of an educator that will astound you. His life was nearly ruined in the wide net cast by a prosecutor in a sexting investigation.

'Sexting' Hysteria Falsely Brands Educator as Child Pornographer
By Kim Zetter

It was an incident that began innocently enough, but nearly ruined the life and three-decade career of a veteran high school teacher and administrator.

Rumors had been flying at Freedom High School in South Riding, Virginia that students were distributing nude pictures of each other on their cell phones. It's a phenomenon, known as "sexting," that's become increasingly worrisome to educators across the country, and Ting-Yi Oei, a 60-year-old assistant principal at the school, was tasked with checking it out.
Oei
Ting-Yi Oei and his wife, Diane Curling
Courtesy Ting-Yi Oei

The investigation was inconclusive, but led to a stunning aftermath: Oei himself was charged with possession of child pornography and related crimes -- charges that threatened to brand him a sex offender and land him in prison for up to seven years. Transferred from his school and isolated from colleagues, Oei spent $150,000 and a year of his life defending himself in a Kafkaesque legal nightmare triggered by a determined county prosecutor and nurtured by a growing hysteria over technology-enabled child porn at America's schools.

"The heaviest burden is the [label] of 'child pornographer'," Oei says. "It just hangs so heavy around me. How you ever recover from that I don't know. "

On Tuesday, Oei's legal nightmare ended when a Virginia judge threw out the case before it got to trial. But as the educator begins piecing his life back together, similar tragedies are unfolding across the country. Reacting to the phenomenon of underage "sexting," prosecutors in at least a dozen states have resorted to arresting or charging kids for possession of child pornography. In a recent case in Pennsylvania, six teens aged 14 to 17 were charged with creating, distributing and possessing child porn. And this week a judge in a separate case in Pennsylvania temporarily barred a prosecutor from charging three teens for taking photos of themselves in their bras and a towel.

Even in this environment of prosecutorial excess, Oei's case stands out as likely the first to entangle an adult who came in possession of an image that even police admit wasn't pornographic, and who did so simply in the course of doing his job.

"These charges are so toxic and incendiary," says Diane Curling, a former teacher and Oei's wife of 35 years. "Children need to be made aware of the dangers of sexting, but to intimidate public education officials and try to make it a felony to even touch something like this is terrifying. . . . If we are not careful, we will find ourselves with a new McCarthy era. "

Oei's problems began in March of last year, when his investigation of sexting rumors at Freedom High led him to a 16-year-old boy. Oei and the school's safety and security specialist met with the student to ask if he knew anything about the photos.

"He says, 'Oh yeah, I've got one on my cell phone,'" Oei recalls.

The image depicted only the torso of a girl -- later determined to be a 17-year old student -- wearing only underpants, her arms mostly covering her breasts. The boy claimed he didn't know who sent him the photo or who the girl was.

Oei says he showed the image to his boss, Principal Christine Forester, who told him to preserve a copy on his office computer for the investigation. A computer neophyte, Oei didn't know how to transfer the image from the boy's cell phone, so the teen sent the picture to Oei's phone, and told him how to forward it to his work e-mail address. When the process was complete, Oei instructed the student to delete the image from his phone.

Oei and the school security specialist interviewed more students, but were unable to find additional pictures or identify the girl in the photo. Oei concluded she probably wasn't a student at the school. Relieved, he says he reported his findings to the principal, thinking the matter was done.

He couldn't have been more wrong.

Story continues here: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/04/sexting-hysteri.html

This is pathetic and paranoid and ruins some ones life because kids do dumb things. I am at a loss for words.

Yea. The rampant paranoia goin' on now is really getting out of hand. It's like some people insist on a squeaky clean shiny world and anything that even hints to being counter to that is to be obliterated.You can't design reality to be user-friendly. Fact is, there's a lot of nasty things goin' on in the world. Accept it and deal with it instead of re-defining or bending and shaping it to make it more easily digestible.

My heart goes out to this guy.

He did act as the law prescribes by reporting the incident to the principal. Still he was subjected to this insane prosecution?!?

This guy's reputation is forever sullied and the case undoubtedly cost the tax payers a good deal of money. Money that could have been spent in more deserving cases I am sure.

This prosecutor was clearly looking to bully the teacher into a plea and to plump up his tough on perv's tough on crime resume regardless of the facts of the case.

No one is served by these kinds of legal romps...aside from perhaps the lawyers who make a buck or two and the reporters who get paid to report it. Children are no safer from stupid decisions at the end of the day and true child predators are not deterred.

how could Oei do anything about it if he didn't show those in power? doesn't mean he is a perv....a perv wouldn't try to do something about it. it worries me that the girl (even if she just did a dumb thing) could be in deeper trouble if the pic had gotten into the wrong hands. there are sick people out there that would have gone looking for the girl. as a parent...i would want to know

To me this is like the salem witch all over again :( it makes me sad that the country has come to this. Pretty soon pics of a shirtless guy will constitute pornography.

Could not have said it better...

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=39783

This is a link to the most recent sexual exploits of female teachers and students. Maybe these kinds of things should be taken seriously.

Here's a very simple solution, so simple even an idiot coulda come up with it. PARENTS DON'T GIVE YOUR CHILD A CAMERA PHONE!!! If your child has to have a cell phone then make sure it's on a plan where you can easily monitor how the phone is being used. If I'm not mistaken there is a cell company that offers online survelience of text messaging specifically designed for parents to monitor their children. If they misuse the phone take it from them, plain and simple end of story.

my son has never had texting anyway. when he can pay for it...he can have it....until then, there is no need for texting

I am not excusing predators. Posting a link to teachers who molest teachers as justification for the prosecutors misconduct in this case is just plain silly.

It's apples and oranges.

No child was molested. The picture was not deemed obscene even by the police who investigated. The educator involved acted in compliance with the law and under the supervision of his superior.

He was not taking pictures of kids, molesting kids or allowing others to do so.

If you read this story you would see that. This man did the right thing and was in compliance with the law when he reported the photo and the boy who had the photo to his supervisor the principal and acted under the direction of his supervisor when he collected a copy of the photo for the investigation.

If anyone dropped the ball it was the principal. Of course that guy is covering his own behind in refusing to defend Oei or even to comment on the matter.

The charges leveled at this man were out of line and the courts saw that and dismissed them but this guys reputation is forever tainted.

Let's bring some sanity to this issue.

Once more Reddbeans is right...don't give kids a cell phone or at least stick to one without picture capability.

Lyann, we actually agree on something??? Ya know I luv ya gurl!!

This whole sexting issue has gotten so out of hand it's not even funny. The media yet again causin mass hysteria.

Seriously, what does a kid need a camera phone for anyway?? For that matter I have to agree with yellowrose, why do they even need textin? There are some parents out there that are way to indulgent with their kids. The only reason a child needs a cell phone is so that the parent can keep up with the child and if the child needs to get a hold of the parent ie, come get me from practise etc.

My 10 yr old doesn't have a cell phone and won't get one until he starts becomin involved in extracirricular activities after school. I have friends who have given their kids cell phones that are the same age as my son. I've asked them "What the h*ll you get them a cell phone for?" They honestly had no valid reason other than their kid's friends have one. Using that logic I reckon when other kids start getting handed vehicles they'll get theirs one to. I love the keepin up with the Jones's kid mentality.

I agree...keeping up with the Jones in an era of rapidly diminishing parental responsibility is heavily to blame for these sorts of problems. For some reason it seems more and more acceptable to parents to expect the government and other adults to create a child proofed world to help them do their job along with educators and law enforcement who are damned if they do and damned if they don't to fill in other aspects of child raising the parents seem incapable of.

The world is messy. There are risky, scary, dangerous spots along with the good spots. You cannot shelter children indefinitely. In denying a child a picture phone I am not suggesting sheltering them but instead giving them age appropriate technology. After all we don't let seven year old drive. I am also not suggesting laws to govern what sort of phones children have. Some children I am sure are capable of maturely handling these sorts of phones. Again we return to parental and personal responsibility.

I understand giving a kid a phone especially when parents are working and children are involved in activities that keep them on the go. Surely there are phones available that have basic features that allow emergency calls but little else.

"you have dirty mail!"

Oh goody I love creative dirty mail!

I am an adult...it's always fun to find something intelligent and enjoyable in my in-box.

Actually, the point is that since there is an over abundance of teachers having sex with students, an investigation of anything deemed inappropriate is warranted. Or is this another socially accepted behavior, that is just overblown by religious nuts?

how did religion enter this? lol

This is a case of people being paranoid about an older man trying to do his job. It saddens me that he had to go through hell with legal issues and will be branded for the rest of his life :(

Didn't you get the memo?

Anything I post gets a pretty standard response.

Doesn't matter what I say or post the response is pre-scripted.

One more time.

InvictusV...there was an investigation. The educator acted within the law. The photo was not deemed obscene even by the investigators.

Still this man was charged by a prosecutor who was looking to make headlines.

The real irony is that the man who was investigating the photos and who acted within the law was charged.

But it didn't stop there. He was publicly accused. A child pornographer!

So...tell me...what part of that is right?