Is your child committing a crime?

WORLAND – July 1 is the beginning of the fiscal year and also the day when the majority of laws passed by the Wyoming Legislature come into effect. One of the new state laws that goes into effect today is Wyoming Statute 6-4-305 which makes sending or possessing nude images of a minor (who is at least 11 years of age and under 18) by a minor illegal.

While Washakie County Attorney John Worrall has not had to deal with this issue, he did state that he could see the need for such a law. “I can see circumstances where that would be something the Legislature would want to consider prohibiting and as a parent I would think that I would want that law too. It doesn’t take a great imagination to see where a high school kid would get angry at a girlfriend who had previously sent a nude selfie or something and then disseminate that to a lot of people. That could be devastating to the victim because, what’s the saying, ‘once it’s on the internet it lives forever,’” Worrall said. “In today’s world with everybody having a cell phone and all the various social media applications that exist it is possible for that sort of scenario to arise,” he added.

The law specifically prohibits dissemination or possession of a nude image of a minor by a minor and defines disseminate as: Means to sell, distribute, deliver, provide, publish, transmit, text, email, exhibit or

otherwise make available to another person but does not include any action taken to notify a person in position of authority of the existence of a nude image of a minor.

The law defines nude image as: a photograph or video depicting a person’s genitalia, perineum, anus or pubic area or the breast of a female.

There are three degrees of penalty depending on the severity of the crime:

— If a minor disseminates a nude image of him or herself or possess an image of another minor they can be charged with dissemination or possession of a nude image of a minor in the third degree and may be fined up to $250. No crime has been committed if the minor in possession of a nude image of another minor who is at least 11 years of age inadvertently came into possession of the image and took reasonable steps to destroy the image or notify a person in a position of authority of its existence.

— If a minor knowingly disseminates a nude image of another minor they can be charged with dissemination or possession of a nude image of a minor in the second degree and may be fined up to $500, imprisonment in a juvenile detention facility for not more than three months or both.

— If a minor secretly captures a nude image of another minor or if a minor disseminates or threatens to disseminate a nude image of another minor to coerce, intimidate, torment, harass or otherwise cause emotional distress to another minor, they can be charged with dissemination or possession of a nude image of a minor in the first degree and may be fined up to $750, imprisonment in a juvenile detention facility for not more than six months or both.

“It would be wise for people, and since that particular law addresses minors disseminating images of minors, then minors would be well advised to be more thoughtful and parents would be wise to be mindful also of how their children are using their phones and social media, so as to make sure that such a thing does not occur,” Worrall said. “The whole concept centers around that you are not able to consent until you are of age. If a minor sends another minor a picture they can’t claim that there was consent to send and consent to receive because the people are not old enough to give consent.”