Maryland State Police warn against racy pictures on Instagram

Police concerned photos are of Md. students, ask parents to talk with kids

BALTIMORE —Maryland State Police are warning parents about racy photos being distributed on the social media app Instagram that they believe may be of middle and high school students from schools throughout the state.

Maryland State Police and other state law enforcement agencies said they have gotten numerous complaints over the past few days from concerned parents about nude and sexually explicit photographs of juveniles being posted on social networking websites, specifically the cellphone app Instagram.

Authorities said although the images do not rise to the level of child pornography under Maryland law at this point, they want to remind the public to be aware of the issues and to report occurrences to Instagram's Help Center at http://help.instagram.comor and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's Cyber Tip Line at www.cybertipline.com.

There were no faces or identifiable features in the Instagram photos, but detectives said they believe they may be of middle and high school-aged students from throughout the state.

"Police believe that there are young people out there taking pictures of themselves and posting them on Instagram pages.  In one school district, we found that there was a group of children following one user, and this user had numerous photos of what we all call selfies," said Maryland State Police spokeswoman Elena Russo. 

Police have identified possible cases in Calvert, Caroline, Baltimore, Anne Arundel, Queen Anne's, Prince George's, St. Mary's and Charles counties. The pages have privacy settings, and users have to be granted access.

Investigators said once Instagram takes the pages down, the user just reposts them under a different name. 

State police suggest parents talk with their children and explain to them the possible repercussions and dangers of taking photographs of themselves in a sexually-explicit manner and posting them on the Internet.

"Parents and children should have conversations that the Internet is not a private place," said Adam Rosenberg, the executive director of the Baltimore Child Abuse Center. He insists that parents shouldn't hesitate to go into their kids' Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.

"There should be a comfort level between parents and children that I can and I will look through your Internet accounts to make sure that you're doing safe things," Rosenberg said.

Police said an undercover investigator was granted access to the pages, and they're working with Instagram to get them removed. Anyone with information on who may be behind it is urged to call police at 410-953-8200.

Meanwhile, police said the following websites are good resources for parents to help protect children from being exploited on the Internet: www.netsmartz.org and www.ncmec.org.

The Maryland Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force is comprised of 35 law enforcement agencies from around the state that are focused on preventing and investigating incidents of sexual child exploitation.

A major part of the Task Force's program is community outreach. Investigators travel around the state providing Internet safety presentations to children, parents, schools, and community or church groups.  For more information on how to schedule a presentation for a group or for more information, email the state police investigative unit at msp.ccu@maryland.gov.