Source: bostonglobe.com 2/22/24
BRAINTREE — Kevin Berner hung up the phone and — in a daze — headed toward the kitchen and his 12-year-old son.
Hey buddy, can we talk?
Minutes earlier, Berner had received a phone call from another father in the neighborhood who shared a disturbing story. He said his son had been in a carpool recently when another boy pulled up a cellphone photo of Berner’s son.
The seventh-grader was naked in the photo “from head to toe.”
Berner knew that his son — whose learning disabilities required special education assistance — could be susceptible to bullying, overly trusting and easily coerced. The family had been warned that the differences between the boy and his peers would grow more pronounced as he got older, and that those differences could make him a target.
Still, a nude photo? On this evening in September 2022, Kevin couldn’t reconcile the claim; his son was so guarded that he refused to change into pajamas without first locking his bedroom door.
As he took a seat next to the boy, Kevin hoped there was a reasonable explanation — a cruel kid with Photoshop, maybe.
“It’s true,” his son said softly.
It had happened a month or two earlier, the boy said, over summer vacation. He’d been in the basement of a friend’s home with two neighborhood boys. One began urging him to take off his clothes. He’d refused, he recalled. But the boy kept begging: Please, it will be funny.
Finally, he’d acquiesced, briefly stripping naked, the boy told his father. When he did, one of the other boys snapped a photo with his phone.
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So the police did nothing to attempt to stop the spread of the photo. Held no one to account. One day that photo will show up on John or Jane Does phone and they will do five years in prison.
Those numbers on reported reports of suspected csam are staggering.
In a less insular town, the boys who took and shared the photo might be facing serious, life-changing, charges. I don’t think they should be considered “sex offenders,” but I also hope they learn something from this other than that they can take advantage of a vulnerable person and face no consequences.
It would be nice to read the rest of the article without hitting a pay wall
🤔 But was this child a victim of “child sexual abuse materials”?? Apparently, the boy was fully naked….But how is that CSAM?? Is mere nudity the next step in sexual offense laws, prosecutions & penalties?
Is a child with their parents at a naturist/nudist camp also a victim of CSAM? 🤷🏻♂️🧐