Clintonville passes sexting ordinance

The city of Clintonville adopted an ordinance that prohibits sexting by minors.

The ordinance was passed by the Clintonville Common Council at its Nov. 12 meeting.

The council also suspended the rules requiring a second reading of the ordinance, so the ordinance is in effect.

Sgt. Tyler Bartel addressed the council about the proposed ordinance during a Committee of the Whole meeting.

Bartel said one of his duties with the Clintonville Police Department is handling Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) investigations. He said this involves exploitation of children and child pornography. In the past, Bartel said he has also served as the School Resource Officer (SRO) for the Clintonville School District.

“For several years now, I’ve been dealing with crimes involving children, and as a result, I’ve conducted a fair amount of child pornography investigations that have originated from residents in the city of Clintonville, and more specifically, juveniles,” Bartel said.

By communicating with other police departments to see how they handle such cases, Bartel said numerous communities have a sexting ordinance that is similar to the one proposed to the council, to help curb dysfunctional behavior.

Bartel said a large source of sexually explicit images are self-produced, or images where the victim knowingly and willingly provided the images, but did not know the images would be saved or sent to others.

“In studies conducted, it is estimated that 25-30% of children between the ages of 14 and 17 have sent a sexually explicit image, whether it be of someone else or themselves,” Bartel said. “It is further estimated that 10% of middle school students have participated in sexting.”

Preventing child pornography
Bartel said the goal of the proposed ordinance is to have local impact on the prevention of child pornography production.

The ordinance addresses the distribution of images by another person, Bartel said. In addition, the ordinance addresses the use of artificial intelligence in producing sexually explicit images.

“A juvenile found to be in possession of or distributing sexually explicit or suggestive images of a child would be violating this ordinance,” Bartel said. “This includes images of themselves, others, or artificially generated.”

Bartel said the proposed ordinance would not cover victims of crime.

If a juvenile receives unsolicited sexually explicit images, they are encouraged to contact an adult, preferable a police officer, Bartel said.

“We are targeting those that are engaged in the distribution and creation of these images,” Bartel said. “This obviously will also not apply to adults engaged in this conduct with children. These would still be referred to the district attorney for prosecution.”

He added, “I firmly believe that having this ordinance enacted will be a useful tool that can be used on solving a problem that exists more than people realize,” Bartel said.

School Resource Officer Casey Ebert told the council that he teaches students about internet safety when using social media. He said he also teaches students about sextortion. This included students from fourth grade through 12th grade.

In his two years as the SRO, Ebert said he has seen an increase of the use of social media by younger students.

Ebert said the proposed ordinance would be used to help educate students.

“This ordinance is just another tool in our pocket, and it will greatly help out our community and the schools,” Ebert said.

Ald. Brandon Braden asked if the police department currently does not have the ability to issue a ticket for this type of behavior.

“It’s a charge to the county, it goes through the DA’s office,” Ebert said. “It’s just a lot easier for us to handle things in-house because we work closely with the judges that are in this community. And since I’m working with these kids every day, I think once it gets in my hands, and I’m working directly with them, it probably means a lot more to them, than when I send it down to county and someone that they don’t even know or met before, gives them a phone call and they’re talking about it.”

Clintonville Police Chief Craig Freitag said the only option the police department currently has if two juveniles are sending sexually explicit photos to each other is to refer them for a felony charge.

“I don’t think that’s really appropriate,” Freitag said. “I’m not condoning what they’re doing, but I think when you think of child porn, you think they’re looking at porn. I think this ordinance fits what we are seeing.”