In recent weeks, hundreds of Cañon City High School students were found to be involved in a large scale sexting scandal that included some students as young as eighth graders. An anonymous tip was made through “Safe2Tell” to alert administrators about the problem and a police investigation was launched. Students at the high school were using secure apps and folders on their phones to hide these pictures, and were sharing these hundreds of photos between them. Due to this scandal, the last football game of the season was cancelled, as many football players were also involved with the incident. Suspensions were made and many cellphones have also been confiscated as of now.

In Colorado, the laws against sexting and sending nude photos are there to protect minors from being sexualized and exploited by adults. Seeing as though many of the kids in the Cañon City scandal are under 18, they will probably face juvenile charges, but  those over 18 could face more severe adult charges.

Sending, receiving, and keeping nude pictures of anyone under the age 18 is illegal and is considered child pornography. In Colorado, a juvenile will go through the juvenile justice process and could receive probation, fines, detention center time, etc. Whereas someone over the age of 18 could serve large amounts of jail time and be fined large sums of money.

Along with this there is the possibility of having to register as a sex offender if the newly convicted child pornographers are over 18. This means restrictions on where someone can live, work, and travel in a neighborhood, and restricts their activities involving and around children. In addition, everyone in the neighborhood where the sex offender has the knowledge that they live there.  The offender must go door-to-door and tell each of their neighbors about their status as a sex criminal.
In short, sending, receiving, and keeping nude photos of anyone under the the age of 18 is illegal and could have severe consequences. Basically, don’t do it.