High school students face criminal charges for 'sexting' in school

America has been known to introduce laws against 'sexting' since 2013

(PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images)

Six students are facing criminal charges after ‘sexting’ in school in an incident that is being described as ‘unusual’, according to media reports.

The explicit messages being exchanged between the pupils from a high school in Plymouth, Massachusetts were allegedly discovered by school administrators when other concerned students raised the alarm after receiving them on their phones.

The charges against the teens are said to include possession of child pornography and distributing obscene matter to a minor, according to Plymouth’s Chief of Police, Chief Michael Botieri.

The chief also said that one of the students faces a charge of ‘annoying a person of the opposite sex’ after he allegedly threatened to post nude photos of the victim online unless she agreed to meet up for sex.

Plymouth Community School’s administrator, Daniel Tyree, told WNDU News that the school planned to schedule a workshop to discuss the issue of ‘sexting’ and its consequences.

The names of the students are not being released because they are minors and a spokeswoman for the Plymouth County District Attorney was not able to provide any more details on the case, CBS Boston reports.

America has been known to have tough laws in place when it comes to ‘inappropriate’ mobile phone content and ‘sexting’.

In 2013, at least nine states introduced bills or resolutions aimed at ‘sexting’ and another three – Arkansas, Georgia and West Virginia – passed legislation in the same year.