A Fox 25 report on teen girls' Facebook photos being copied and posted to a pornographic website. The FBI and Worcester County DA are investigating. Robert Siciliano advises parents to limit or remove their kids' photos online.
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Now at 10, girls' profile pictures being taken off of Facebook and put on a pornographic website.
We ask a district attorney what, if anything, can be done about it.
Profile pictures of teens stolen off Facebook, posted on a pornographic website, and tonight teens statewide could be at risk of the same. Good evening, I'm Mark Ackerbloom.
Hi everybody, I'm Maria Stefanos. Tonight the FBI has actually moved in to investigate this. It was discovered at one school district, but it may be one of hundreds where kids Kids' pictures are being swiped. Heather Hedges is with Late to T— What do you have, Heather?
Hi there, Maria.
Well, tonight, the Worcester County DA is working with federal authorities to try to determine who is doing this. We know it's not the girls who are pictured. The DA seems to think it's not their classmates either. And until they do figure out who's doing this, well, these girls' pictures continue to be on this graphic website they don't want them to be on.
I think it's terrible.
News that someone is lifting girls' Facebook profile pictures and putting them on a pornographic website without their without their knowledge has parents, school districts, and investigators alarmed.
You know, 3 things in life used to be permanent: birth, taxes. Now it's birth, death, taxes, and any image that you put on the internet.
The website, which FOX 25 has decided not to name, claims the girls pictured on the site are from all over the U.S. and from all over Mass, from Lowell to Dudley to Billerica, leading investigators to believe there could be many girls on the site who don't even realize it, especially because the website doesn't only feature sexual pictures. Some of the pictures are basic headshots.
Because these are innocent kids and now they're being victimized.
17 of the girls on the site go to Charlton's Bay Path Regional Vocational Technical School. One of the girls' fathers made the discovery and told the Dean of Students, who told police.
It was his daughter's Facebook picture, and when they went onto the website to verify it, because apparently somebody had notified her, he, as well as his daughter, identified a few more of our students on that website. And before I got off the phone, I probably had 4 or 5 students lined up at my door to also inform me of this website.
Bay Path's Dean says the girls from her school on the site are all fully clothed and are doing nothing wrong in the pictures. Still, the concern is even just the association with a pornographic website could impact a child's future.
Colleges, jobs, they're Googling things like that.
We asked the Worcester County DA if there's anything parents can do to get their daughters' pictures off the site. To your knowledge, were any laws here violated where you could go after this website?
That's what we're looking at right now. Right now.
The DA tells me that the website was actually successfully shut down once before, but it somehow managed to resurface. Charlton Police tell me they think this website might be international, which could make shutting it down even more difficult. If you have a child on the website, you should report that to police immediately.
Maria?
Heather, so I know you just asked Joe Early, is this against the law? And the person who's doing this, could they face any charges here?
Well, that's what federal investigators are looking into. As you just heard, the DA say, but the issue really is that what we're talking about is right-clicking and copying a picture off of a public website and pasting it somewhere else. So there's a question that this— there might not be anything illegal about that at all. That's what federal investigators are looking into. But the fact that this website does have child pornography on it, that could be what they go after whoever is doing this for.
Maria?
Interesting. All right, Heather Hedgetus live in Worcester. Thank you, Heather.
So what can you do? Sadly, not a lot. Online McAfee security expert Robert Siciliano tells us the best thing parents can do Is make sure the kids don't post any photos of themselves online. The issue here is that there's no privacy setting on Facebook that would hide the profile picture of your child. Once someone is logged in, they search a name, they can see the profile photo. So make sure if they do have one that it's appropriate, or maybe not of themselves at all. Our security expert will join us in our 8 AM hour on the Fox 25 Morning News tomorrow. Facebook or tweet us if you have questions on this story and we'll try to work them in.
