'Sexting is porn': Que. police campaign targets intimate messages among teenagers

CTV Montreal: Underage sexting Police in Chateauguay are visiting local high school to remind students that sexting underage – sharing nude photos – is child pornography.

Police in Chateauguay, Que. have launched a new campaign aimed at putting an end to sexting among teenagers.

Police have been visiting nearly 5,000 students at schools in the Montreal suburb, where officers try to drive home the message that “sexting is porn.”

Sexting is the sharing of intimate messages—with or without a photo—through text message or a messaging app.

Police say sexting not only poses a risk that the images or messages could live forever on the internet, they’re also illegal. Among youth, sexting can be considered child pornography.

“It's really important to tell them (sexting is) criminal, because they don't know and they don't realize,” Chateauguay police officer Martine Denis told CTV Montreal during a campaign visit at Howard S. Billings Regional High School.

In May, 2017, six teenagers in Nova Scotia pleaded guilty to distributing intimate images after the teens uploaded images of roughly 20 girls to a Dropbox account for each of them to share.

In 2014, a 17-year-old girl in British Columbia was convicted of possession of child pornography and distributing child pornography for sending explicit texts of her then boyfriend’s former girlfriend.

Social workers helping with the campaign say a lot of the time students don’t feel sexting is a big deal and don’t think of the consequences in the moment.

“Adults over 18 do it. We talk about it. So I think the misconception (with) the students is they think they can do it also,” said Veronique Beauregard with CALACS Chateauguay, a help centre victims of sexual violence.

Howard S. Billings Regional High School has had to involve the police a few times due to sexting.

In general, the Chateauguay police have handled more than 30 child pornography cases since 2016.

With a report from CTV Montreal’s Angela MacKenzie