Mass charges due over online teen-sex film

MORE than 1,000 youths in Denmark could be charged with spreading child pornography after a video of two 15-year-olds having sex was circulated among youngsters on Facebook.

Facebook had received reports of two videos and an explicit photo being spread on its instant messaging service, showing a boy and a girl having consensual sex. It informed US authorities but the material had been spread from 2015 until the autumn of 2017.

The case, which reached Denmark via the European Union’s law enforcement agency Europol, involves around 800 boys and 200 girls, most of them aged between 15 and 20. The police are in the process of charging them.

“This is a very large and complex case, which has taken a long time to investigate, especially because of the large number being charged,” said Lau Thygesen, a Danish police detective. Although the age of consent in Denmark is 15, its law stipulates that spreading sexual material involving people aged under 18 constitutes distribution of child pornography, which has a maximum six-year prison sentence.

If found guilty, the suspects are likely to receive a fine or a 20-day suspended sentence, both of which would give them a criminal record lasting up to 10 years, police said.