Minor Sending Simulated Pornography to Our Minor Daughter

[bcdudley]

My question involves criminal law for the state of: Texas

We have a 16 year old daughter. There is a 17 year old boy that she has been seeing behind our back. We have told her not to see him and we have told him that if we comes around her, we will call the police. I caught him at her window a few months back with my gun drawn on him. I told him if I ever catch him there again, I will shoot him. He told us that he can do whatever he wants, our daughter can do what she wants and he can do whatever he wants to her. He is a smart mouthed little punk.

We got a cell phone last year that we let her use. The cell phone is 100% in my name. A couple weeks ago, we found a text on her phone where he gave her a pair of handcuffs and told her to strip down, put the handcuffs on and have our 6 year old daughter take a picture with her legs spread. We don't think she ever did this, but we are not 100% sure. She would not ever give us the handcuffs and neither one of the girls would talk about it.

Since then, we put monitoring software on the phone that sends us her location, every text message, image and phone call she sends or receives on it. Over the last 3 days this boy has been texting her and demanding she send pictures back to him. He has been sending her pictures of cartoon (I think it is called anime) girls that are tied up and naked in some pretty graphic positions. He is asking for her to send pictures of herself back and draw herself how she would like to be tied up. He has used words like "Make a real woman out of her", so I am assuming they have not done anything yet. She does respond back with drawings, but nothing pornographic.

We know for certain she is not seeing him outside of school hours, but during school, we don't know what is going on. I can set her phone to block all calls from this boy, but I would rather see the communication between them rather than have them communicate some other way.

Our daughter is pretty naive about stuff like this and she has been caught up in stuff like this before. When she was 15, we caught her giving out her name,phone number and address to much older guys on the Internet. They were asking her to take pictures of herself as well which we think she probably did. I have since put monitoring software on the computers and she knows about that, but she does not know about the one on her phone yet.

I called the police and they say there is nothing they can do since the pictures are not real. What else can I do? I want this kid out of her life.

[lurkertom]

Why does she even have a phone if she has demonstrated she is unable to use it responsibly? No phone, severe restriction/grounding, maximum adult supervision. If the boy comes around call the police and tell them he is trespassing. Man up and do whatever it takes.

[bcdudley]

The phone is used so we know when to pick her up from school and school activities. She is not supposed to use it for anything else. We found out she was when we got the last phone bill with over 10,000 text messages in one month. The phone is unlimited because she is using a shared plan with my wife and I. As I said, I would rather the communication go over a medium that I can monitor, rather than some other way.

She does not leave the house unless it is for school or school related activities. She is always with one of us or a grandparent. The boy is constantly sending her texts encouraging her to sneak out, but thanks to the program, we can catch her.

Is there anything I can do with the pictures he sent her to have him prosecuted? They are very graphic.

[cbg]

Until less than a generation ago, cell phones did not exist, and parents still managed to pick their kids up from school on time. You know what time her last class lets out, don't you?

[bcdudley]

Why she has the phone is irrelevant. I should not have to inconvenience myself or my family because this punk can't keep his pecker in his pants. We have reasons for her having a phone such as we want to know where she is at all times.

Can we do something like get a restraining order against him?

[lurkertom]

No phone = no texting = no pictures. She is less naive than you may think. You want to control the horn dog BF's behavior when you need to work on your daughter's and your own. Unless he sends porn there is nothing you can do to him, legally speaking. How does it inconvenience you to take away your daughter's phone?

[bcdudley]

So there is nothing I can legally do about this kid sending my kid pornography? That is what I am getting since the only answer I am getting is to take away her phone and ground her. Shooting him while trespassing, while legal, is very expensive.

[cbg]

You can try talking directly to the DA, taking along the phone to show him the pictures. But if he opts not to take action, there is no law you can invoke to force him.

A 17 year old is still a minor. Have you spoken to this kid's parents?

[lurkertom]

Anime or hentai is not considered porn even though it may be very graphic. Whatever it takes to protect your family brah.

[Dogmatique]

So there is nothing I can legally do about this kid sending my kid pornography? That is what I am getting since the only answer I am getting is to take away her phone and ground her. Shooting him while trespassing, while legal, is very expensive.

May I ask why taking the phone away and grounding her is such a huge deal? That is surely the first move, no?