Sexting minors is an act clouded with peril especially if you are over 18 years of age. If you are an individual aged 18 or over and you engage in sexting with a minor, you are exposing yourself to numerous potential criminal charges. This is especially true if the minor sends explicit pictures of herself or himself in texts. Read about Child Pornography here. If you have engaged in sexting minors, it is imperative that you speak with an experienced criminal defense attorney before you speak with the police or any law enforcement agency.
The act of sexting minors occurs when you engage in flirt ful and explicit dialog with a minor through text messaging. Whenever an adult engages in this type of explicit text messaging with a minor they open themselves up to a Corruption of Minors charge. Read about internet sex crimes charges. Sexting would arguably entail a Corruption of Minors charge because it is an act which tends to corrupt the morals of a minor. Specifically, it would be difficult to argue that sending elicit and sexually explicit texts to a minor would not corrupt the morals of a minor. Even worse, sexting which entails more than a few inappropriate text messages to a minor would require that the Corruption of Minors charge be graded as a felony punishable by a maximum of seven years in state prison.
An additional peril with sexting occurs when the minor sends explicit pictures of themselves via text messages. Every explicit picture of a minor would constitute one count of possession of child pornography when the text is received by the adult. Additionally, if the adult forwards the explicit image to another person, they would arguably be guilty of not only possession of child pornography, but also of dissemination of child pornography. Each count of Possession of Child Pornography is a felony of the third degree also punishable by a maximum of seven years in state prison.
