NEW ORLEANS -- In a new survey, more than a third of teen girls admit to sending sexually suggestive messages.
The same number of teens say it is common for nude or semi-nude pictures, posted online or sent on a cell phone, to get passed around to people they weren't intended for. And the experts say parents need to protect their children from the dangers in this hi-tech world.
Delegates from around the U.S. are in New Orleans this week for the National Conference on Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Prevention. And a topic on the agenda is "sexting."
Experts use a video that shows a teen upset that strangers have seen something online that was supposed to be private. They warn parents that teens sexting on their phones can cause them to go to jail.
"So this child that is taking a sexually explicit photograph of themself (sic) and then sending it out to their boyfriend or sending it to their girlfriend, they're actually committing a crime a felony. They could be registered sex offenders for the rest of their lives," said Richard Love, a retired police detective from Fort Lauderdale.
Love is now a consultant for Fox Valley Technical College, who supplies training to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and Internet Crimes Against Children Task Forces across the U.S.
They can even get into trouble when an adult predator poses online as an interested teen and commits "sextortion."
"And the adult now comes back to the child and tells the child, 'If you don't continue to send me pictures of yourself, I will post them everywhere. I will tell everybody at school,'" said Love.
Love, who was a former FBI consultant, says teens even need to be very careful about what they post on their social networking sites.
"When you apply for a job, you apply for a college, they're asking now for your screen names. They're asking for your what, Facebook, MySpace accounts, your internet provider accounts that you may have and they are actually looking at them, because it could make a determination of the type of character that you are," he said.
And he advises parents to check everything. Have the wireless cell phone company send you a print-out of your child's text messages, keep the computer in the kitchen or den, not the bedroom. And be in charge.
"It's 10 o'clock. Time to go to sleep. Give me your cell phone, because children are up all night texting talking to their friends," he explained.
Stopping the problem before one happens is what this organization believes is best.
"The issue of prevention is our only true hope of really responding to the issue. We can lock up all the people(sex offenders). We can detect, but we need to also be working on the prevention side," said Chris Newlin, the executive director of the National Children's Advocacy Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Love also says cyber bullying causes shame to the victims because instead of just a few people at school witnessing the bullying, people all over the world can.
