Teens Get Probation In Connection With Sexting Case In Macomb

MACOMB (CBS DETROIT) - Three teens who were involved in a sexting scandal are sentenced in the case in Chesterfield Township.

The three L'Anse Creuse High School North students will be on probation for three years.

In November 2014, prosecutors believe that a 15-year-old girl was photographed in a sex act with another teen(s) and that the image was then uploaded to a social media site by a co-defendant.

"We were able to stop this from going on but once pictures like this are posted online - it's not just the kids at your school that see this picture - there's a world of internet predators out there who wait for these opportunities and pounce on them," Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith. "You know they are on websites and they are on chat rooms."

Smith says sexting has, unfortunately, become a trend among teens.

"We had two cases here in Macomb County, at high schools, where boys have solicited other boys to forward them pictures and then they created a website of ex-girlfriends online of naked pictures of old girl friends," he noted.

"To me this is a disturbing trend that is going on all over the place, not just Macomb County, although we've had several cases. A disturbing trend of sexting and kids have gotten comfortable with this idea of sending pictures and taking pictures of other people in compromising positions and then posting it - and that's exactly what happened here."

The teens, 17-year-olds Ryan Modaffare and Gregory Kwapik, and 18-year-old Nicholas Kelly, sentenced under the Holmes Youthful Trainee Act (HYTA) , cannot use a cell phone or anything that connects to the internet for three years. They can't have contact with each other or the victim.

Under the HYTA the teens will not have to register on the sex offenders list. Should they break probation the HYTA status would be revolked.

Anyone under the age of 18 can't have a photo taken of them during a sexual encounter; that 's considered child pornography.