Back in the day, if a girl liked a boy she passed him a cute little note, hoping the teacher wouldn’t intercept it. Now, teens all over the nation are sexting each other to prove their affection or show off their awesome bods. And this time, they are definitely being intercepted.

Sexting is the term for sending nude pictures of yourself via text message. Most teenagers have heard rumors of this happening, or even sent or received one. But what may seem like a harmless deed is proving to have some very serious consequences.

Recently, three 14– and 15-year-old girls who go to Greensburg Salem High School in Greensburg, Pa. sexted three upperclassmen boys nude or semi-nude pictures of themselves. The girls now face charges of manufacturing, disseminating or distributing child pornography, and the boys are being charged with possession of child porn.

For most, the only fear accompanying a sext message is that it will be passed along to the friends of the receiver. In this case, it wasn’t a friend who found the pictures, but a teacher. Upon seizing the phone, administration came across the naked pictures of one of the girls, and police were called in to further investigate, leading them to the other two males and their nudey pics.

The go-to image of a child porn consumer is a pervy old man in a long black trench coat who sits at the city’s most popular park. So picturing a 16-year-old boy sitting in a cell for the same thing is quite astonishing to some, and extremely scary to most.

While there was no evidence against the students of any inappropriate doings on school grounds, the authorities charged them with possession and distribution of child pornography to show kids that sending these types of messages to friends can have severe repercussions.

Garfield student Gabrielle*, had a nearly topless picture of her distributed throughout her grade a couple years back.

“I was kind of bored one night,” she said. “I decided to take some pictures and never intended to send them. I wasn’t completely naked but at the time I thought it was really daring and exciting. I kind of wondered what would happen if I sent them. I showed it to one person to cheer them up because they were having a bad week. He swore he wouldn’t tell anyone. But at the time he got it, he was with a couple other guys and of course they each sent themselves a copy.”

Not only did the picture get distributed to his best friends, but Gabrielle explained that a week or two later, she stopped being friends with the boy she sent the picture to. He was mad and sent it to more people. Then it really got around.

“I definitely regret sending it.,” she said. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with taking or sending a picture. I don’t really think it’s that big of a deal but it can definitely start to be a problem.”

Regarding the Pennsylvania teenagers, Gabrielle believes it’s an invasion of privacy.

“They confiscate phones so they won’t disrupt the class,” she said. “It’s not okay to do that to seek information and go through their personal files. I would be really angry. It’s my decision if that’s what I want to do. And we live in a free country, so it shouldn’t be a crime. If someone were selling it, that would be different.

“If all parties are agreed, especially the one that took the picture, it shouldn’t be a big deal. The people who do it with mean intention should be punished. But it’s our private lives.”

Twenty percent of teenagers ages 13 to 19 in the United States say they have sent nude, or at least partially nude pictures of themselves, according to The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. In most cases, the pictures were for their boyfriend or girlfriend, but some were used to help lock a date or get someone to hook up with them. And a small percentage of respondents said it was intended for someone they met online.

Another GHS student, Natalie*, and her boyfriend exchange risqué photos regularly. Although sexting is a normal activity for her, she says she sees how it can be a bad decision under certain circumstances.

“If I want to send a picture of myself to my boyfriend, it shouldn’t be a big deal,” Natalie said. “I can understand about me posting a naked picture of myself on the Internet, where anybody can look at it, but this is to my boyfriend. If I could show him myself naked right now, I would! But we’re not together. It fills the gap.”

With such a large portion of United States youth participating in sexting, what are officials to do? This may be dangerous, but schools and police can’t randomly search teenagers’ cell phones, and throw all who have sent or received in jail or juvenile hall.

So boys, stick to passing notes, and stop sending me your down-there pictures. I don’t want to go to jail.