The Livingston County Prosecutor announced yesterday that he will not seek charges against 19 teenagers who were found to possess nude images of a 14-year-old girl.

Prosecutor David Morse told the Lansing State Journal that while possessing and distributing the pictures was a criminal act, he felt the school officials and parents handled the situation well. 

“We felt the school took appropriate actions by imposing suspensions,” Morse said. “Most of the parents in this case dealt with it appropriately.

“We didn’t feel it was necessary for us to file any criminal charges. We didn’t have any expectations there would be greater lessons learned by filing criminal charges and hanging sex-related convictions around some 14-year-olds’ necks.”

The pictures were taken this summer by the 14-year-old, and police had said she was “clowning around.” But when students at Pickney returned to school and word got out the pictures existed, the pictures began circulating from cell phone to cell phone.

Morse had indicated he might seek child pornography charges against the students who had the pictures on their cell phones. An investigation by police began when some one printed the pictures off and identified the girl. The investigation determined the pictures were sent to as many as 200 cell phones, but only 19 people were identified.

The incident served to highlight the results of a recent survey that shows many young adults and teenagers are involved in sending sexual images and messages with technology like cell phones and the internet.