A recent trend for teenagers and preteens makes old games of spinning bottles and minutes spent in closets seem innocent in comparison. Across the country, law enforcement, prosecutors and school officials are dealing with "sexting" - juveniles sending racy photographs over cell phones. The trend has hit Bismarck, and Wednesday, a girl was cited in relation to photographs she sent.

A 16-year-old Bismarck girl received a citation for being an unruly juvenile on Wednesday after her mother discovered she had sent explicit photographs of herself to a friend, a boy, via cell phone. The 37-year-old mother reported the incident to police after an argument over the matter in which the girl called her mother obscene names.

The girl, described as "promiscuous" in the report, said taking such photographs makes her "feel good" about herself.

Such reports to law enforcement are becoming more common. Part of the increase in such reports likely is that the technology allowing people to instantly pass on photographs by cell phone and computer has improved and become normal for teenagers to have, said Bismarck Police Lt. Randy Ziegler. The problems are obvious, with the possibility of the photographs getting passed around beyond the person for whom they were intended.

Mandan Police Det. Jon Vanderhoef could recall one such case in that city, in which a man and a juvenile girl from another state allegedly were exchanging explicit photographs. The man initially was charged in district court for possession of child pornography, but the case recently was dismissed and similar charges were filed in federal court.

In some places, prosecutors and law enforcement have started charging juveniles with felonies for "sexting." According to an Associated Press report, prosecutors across the country have started charging juveniles for making and possessing child pornography when they exchange nude photographs of themselves and others.

Rep. Lois Delmore, D-Grand Forks, has sponsored a bill that would make it a Class B misdemeanor to distribute photographs depicting nude or partially nude human figures without the written consent of the individual in the photographs. The bill has passed through the state House and will next be considered by the Senate.

Burleigh County Assistant State's Attorney Jeff Ubben, one of the prosecutors in the county handling juvenile cases, said there have been a "handful" of cases involving nude photographs being distributed via cell phones.

In one case, an adult man took nude photographs of a 17-year-old girl, with her permission, and he was prosecuted for sexual assault. In another, a teenage boy sent a photograph of his genitals to an ex-girlfriend to harass her and was charged with disorderly conduct, Ubben said.

As the cases become more common, Ubben said it's entirely possible that the juveniles in Burleigh County will begin to face child pornography-related charges, which can become felonies and be moved to district court from juvenile court. Such charges could act as deterrents to stop the "sexting," he said.

"It's a serious act and it would have serious consequences," he said. "Anytime there are photos of underage people being sent around, that's nothing to be taken lightly."

Ziegler advises parents to be vigilant about what's going on in the lives of their children. Parents need to check out what their kids are doing with their cell phones, go in their rooms on occasion and keep up on what's going on in their lives, he said.

Officers have encountered some parents who feel that their children's rooms are private and off-limits, but that shouldn't be the case, he said.

"A lot of people think they're being nosy … but I think, as a parent, you owe it to your kids to be nosy,"Ziegler said.

(Reach reporter Jenny Michael at 250-8225 or jenny.michael@bismarcktribune.com.)