Candler Co. middle school students facing child pornography charges after sharing photos

CANDLER COUNTY, Ga. (WTOC) - Pictures taken and shared by some Candler County middle school students have four teens facing sexual exploitation charges.

Investigators say the pictures and videos equaled child porn, even if children took the photos.

Candler County Sheriff John Miles said this case started with some middle school girls taking pictures of themselves on their phones and sending them to boys in their class. The boys shared the pics and it went from there.

The sheriff says he doesn't think they realized they were distributing child pornography. But the teens face the same charges an adult would.

“It doesn’t matter if the illegal content, child pornography, comes from the internet or its generated on a device locally, and shared. It’s a crime either way,” Miles said.

He said they'll pass the case along to the District Attorney’s office and prosecutors can decide when or if or how this case goes to court.

But he says these charges could follow these teens for a long time. He urges parents to have a conversation about this with their kids.

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