MILL CREEK, Wash. - The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy has found one-in-five teenagers has sent or posted nude photos of themselves for friends to see. Another survey, being used by educators to dissuade teens from "sexting" found 40 percent of adolescent girls feeling pressured to send naked pictures via cell phone to their boyfriends. 20 percent of boys reported feeling pressured.
"It's just what kids do these days," says Steve Smith, the school resource officer for Mill Creek's Jackson High School. "They have no idea the damage it can do and how permanent it is."
Smith, an officer with the Mill Creek Police Department, also works at the city's Heatherwood Middle School. He says he has seen cases of kids as young as 12-years-old sexting.
"We only see the tip of the iceberg," he says. "There is a lot more of this going on than we know about."
Girls at Jackson High School say they've heard of friends getting pressure to send provocative pictures to their boyfriends via their cell phones.
"Some of these girls are really young," says Allie Pearson, a freshman.
"Then they break up," adds junior Freddie Vahdati. "And the pictures end up all over the school."
Ofc. Smith is now taking matters into his own hands, confronting kids face-to-face about the dangers of sexting. He talks frankly about it with them in the hallways and hosts programs in the classrooms.
"I consider these kids like my own," he says. "The impact of this can be devastating and I don't want to see it happen to them."
The courses focus on the illegality of taking, sending and receiving nude pictures of minors.
"They can go to jail for this sort of thing and even have to register as sex offenders for the rest of their lives," says Smith.
Smith says he tries to focus on specifics that teens can clearly comprehend.
"I tell them 'What if that picture went out on the Internet? Or better yet, what if everyone in the school saw it? How about if your parents saw it?' That gets them thinking."
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