BY SUSAN L. OPPAT

The Livingston Community News

Livingston County Prosecutor David F. Morse announced Monday that he will not file charges against a 14-year-old Pinckney High School girl who took explicit cell phone photos of herself and sent them to two boys, or against the students who sent them to another 200 cell phones.

Morse said school suspensions for about 20 students and parental discipline were sufficient punishment, even though, because the girl is a minor, the incident amounted to criminal distribution of child pornography.Morse urged parents to attend a program at Pathfinder School in the Pinckney district at 7 p.m. Wednesday, "Analog Parents with Digital Children."

"If parents are going to provide their children with technology, they should be aware of the capabilities of that technology, and the dangers that unsupervised use of that technology can bring," Morse said.

While some parents were skeptical, he said, if the images had made it online, "predators could interpret that as an open invitation to make contact" with the girl.

He said proof came in a Freedom of Information Act request filed last week by a New York prison inmate who is serving 20 years to life for sexual assault on a minor. The inmate sought the police report on the investigation, with the girl's name, address, phone number, and the photos and videos. Morse said he must release the report, but will do so without the personal information, photos or videos.

He said the request proves people are trolling the Internet and news media for cases like this.

Morse's decision marks the end of a case that began in October when police confiscated six mobile phones with about 20 pictures and two, 30-second videos that the Pinckney girl had taken of her genitals and showing her face.

The girl sent the images to two boys, but when school resumed they were distributed to an estimated 200 students.

Livingston Sheriff's Detective Lt. Todd Luzod said the girl involved committed a crime by sending the photos to her friends.

"It's really important to educate the students to realize once you put something like that out over the air like that, you have no idea how many cell phones or computers it could go to," Luzod said.

In an unrelated incident about a week later, Dexter High School officials confiscated six cell phones and an iPod there because carrying inappropriate images. That case remains in the Washtenaw County prosecutor's office.

About a week later, Fowlerville officials reported that a 14-year-old girl there sent photos of herself to friends. Four students were suspended for a day.

Several students in Brighton were charged in juvenile court after a similar incident in June, Morse said. He said charges were dismissed after the students wrote papers about the dangers of transmitting sexually explicit photos of themselves or friends.

"Kids need to realize there can be unintended consequences from this type of behavior," Morse said. "And for parents, it's one more reminder to keep a close eye on what their kids are doing both with computers and cell phones."

Susan Oppat can be reached at soppat@annarbornews.com or at 734-482-1166.