In a 2012 survey of college students published by Elizabeth Englander of the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center, 30 percent admitted that during high school they had sent nude photos, and 45 percent reported that they had received them.

One study of teenagers in Texas basically concluded that sexting is the new first base. “Every one of my colleagues have been dealing with this it’s becoming a norm,” says Clancy. Because Massachusetts, like many states, had no specific laws related to minors sexting, any teen caught distributing a nude photo, even a selfie, could technically be charged with a felony count of child pornography, bringing the possibility of prison time and placement on the sex offenders registration list.Īs documented in Nancy Jo Sales’s 2016 book American Girls, this phenomenon of boys pressuring girls to share nudes, and then often betraying that trust by sharing them online, has become widespread, popping up in small towns like Canon City, Colorado Winnetka, Illinois and Knoxville, Iowa. “They just were afraid of getting in trouble and sent to the police station with their parents.”Īlthough police viewed the girls as the victims, there was still cause for concern. “I don’t think the girls were all that embarrassed,” Ginny says. But when you talk to the girls directly, you find that what they dreaded most was not so much the photos circulating online, but the news getting out to adults. “There are some young people here who are very embarrassed and very upset,” Police Chief Matthew Clancy said at the time. A lot of the girls who knew they were in the Dropbox weren’t coming to school.” Boys and girls were hauled into the police station for questioning, and TV news crews parked themselves on campus for five days, trying to convince students to speak with reporters.

“Girls were freaking out, and the boys were deleting the Dropbox off their phones. “People were getting called down to the office left and right,” one female Duxbury High student, “Ginny,” says in an interview. Eventually, school authorities were tipped off.

Ri high school drop dropbox login