One of the growing trends the Roanoke Rapids Police Department has seen in the last six months is sexting.

Sexting is the practice of sending sexually explicit photos by phone or social networking.

“We’ve been seeing increased numbers in the past six or seven months,” Major Tommy Hathaway said this morning. “We want to get the word out to parents that there are teens taking pictures that are sexually explicit or nude and sending it to a friend. Once you send it to the cyber world it’s out there.”

In North Carolina, sending nude photos is child pornography, the major said. If caught, “You can either go to jail or wind up on the sex offender registry for 30 years.”

A name on the sex offender registry means limitations such as no social networking, going or being around daycare centers. “It can compromise things they can do in school,” Hathaway said. “It applies to kids as well as adults. Even a high school student can be put on the North Carolina Sex Offender Registry.”

One way to guard against this is a cell phone application called My Mobile Watchdog. You can, Hathaway said, simply take the child’s phone and look at it. He said it is important for parents to know social networking site passwords and check the pages regularly.

Hathaway said the police department investigated one case but an arrest was not made.

Captain Andy Jackson encourages parents to make a commitment to learn about texting and using the cell phone in inappropriate ways. “I know some parents don’t want to talk about sex, but I think parents should discuss with their children the consequences of uses of a cell phone. The danger of doing it is that it could end up being downloaded to a pedophile’s computer.”

There is a stigma to being labeled a sex offender, Hathaway said. “That is a terrible moniker to hold the rest of your life to be a sex offender. It seems innocent sending a picture but it can affect you in college and the job market.”