Police in Virginia said on Thursday they will no longer pursue efforts to take sexually explicit photos of a 17-year-old, in an effort to prove a sexting case against him.

Police and prosecutors faced a wave of criticism following media reports that they had obtained a warrant to take photos of the teen's erect penis. Police wanted the pictures to compare against photos he is accused of sending to his then 15-year-old girlfriend.

On Thursday, Manassas police lieutenant Brian Larkin said the department will not proceed with the plan to take the pictures and will let a search warrant authorising the photos expire.

Privacy advocates had criticised the plan as a violation of the teen's constitutional rights.

The teen's aunt, who serves as his legal guardian, said she had not heard of the police department's reversal until contacted by an Associated Press reporter on Thursday afternoon. She said she would be ecstatic if police follow through on their statement that they will no longer pursue the photos. But she said she won't be fully satisfied until the case against her nephew is dropped entirely.

The teen is charged in juvenile court with felony counts of possession and manufacture of child pornography. The aunt maintains that the charges are overblown and said the plan to pursue photos of her nephew in an aroused state came about only after she and her nephew refused to accept a plea bargain.

Larkin said he had no information on why the department no longer plans to pursue the photos. On Wednesday night, the department issued a statement saying it was not its policy "to authorise invasive search procedures of suspects in cases of this nature", but made no definitive statements about whether they would continue to pursue the photos that had been specifically authorised in the search warrant.