Category: Technology News

The decision is due to the laws in North Carolina with regards to the illegality of sexting between minors.

A North Carolina judge has now ruled that it is a crime for two consenting teens to take part in sexting one another, in a case that resulted in an adolescent’s ban from using mobile phones during a full year of probation.

The individual in question is a 17 year old in high school who plays football and was caught up in a legal disaster.

The North Carolina teen found himself caught up in a legal battle that started with allegations (not against him) of the statutory rape of a local girl who was 14 years old at the time. This accusation brought about a widespread sweep of mobile phones that was conducted by the Sheriff’s department. It was during that sweep that the 17 year old high school student had his smartphone checked by the police.

At that the time when the mobile phones were being checked as a part of the legal sweep, the boy was 16 years old.

He attended Douglas Byrd High School in the state and at the time, his girlfriend sent him a sexy picture of herself. He replied with his own similarly themed picture, as a common response from a teen boy whose girlfriend was showing sexual interest in him. Neither the boy nor his girlfriend shared any of the sexting photos with any other person – which is rare and was quote a positive element of this otherwise unpleasant case.

Unfortunately, when the police checked the boy’s phone as they investigated the separate statutory rape case – in which he was not a suspect and is still not believed to have been involved – they discovered the various sexting photos. This brought about five charges of felony against the boy. Four were for having sexually exploited himself, a minor, and one was for having a picture of his girlfriend, who was also a minor.

Due to a quirky part of North Carolina law, despite the fact that anyone under the age of 18 can be considered a minor when they are a victim of a crime, when they are 16 or 17 they can be charged as an adult when they are the ones committing the crime. Therefore, because the boy was 16 years old, he was actually an adult using mobile phones to commit crimes against himself as a minor. This, despite the fact that the accused and the victim were the same person.

This rate of device use in the population is currently sitting among highest levels in all of Europe.

According to a recent survey conducted by CBOS, a pollster firm, the penetration of mobile technology is higher in Poland than it is in most other countries, as 91 percent of the population has a cell phone of some form, which is used regularly.

That said, it should be noted that the penetration of smartphones, specifically, is not incredibly high.

The CBOS survey revealed that only 35 percent of Polish people have smartphones. Another 41 percent have classic or feature cell phones, and 15 percent are owners of both types of this mobile technology. The survey went on to examine the ownership of the various types of cell phone with greater depth in order to gain insight into who is keeping the traditional style of classic device and who is taking the step into the more recent tech by purchasing smartphones.

What was discovered was that the newer the mobile technology, the younger the owners of the devices.

The research determined that the people whose mobile devices were smartphones were more likely to be among the younger age groups. Moreover, those with smartphones were also likely to be better educated than those who were owners of feature phones or classic devices.

According to the report published by CBOS based on this mobile tech ownership survey in Poland, “Over three quarters of [polled] mobile phone users (78 percent) send and receive text messages via their phone. Among the less typical features of mobile phones, the most popular (57 percent) was the onboard camera.”

The survey provided some interesting insight into the ownership and usage of these mobile devices in Poland, as it is clear that the population is interested in this type of tech, but at the same time, the penetration rate of smartphones remains notably lower than it is in many other European countries.

It is likely that the next few years will be defining ones as there will likely be a shift in the type of mobile technology that is owned by various different demographics as has been the case in other similar markets around the world.