Hortonville seeks to protect juveniles
By John Faucher
The village of Hortonville Public Safety Committee approved an ordinance prohibiting sexting at its Nov. 13 meeting.
Hortonville Police Chief Kristine Brownson told committee members that the department is seeing more instances of juveniles sending inappropriate images to each other.
She said cases have been more prevalent at the high school level.
Currently the village does not have an ordinance prohibiting sexting.
Brownson said the only way to discourage this type of inappropriate behavior is to put an ordinance in place.
“This way we can at least issue them citations,” said Brownson.
She presented a sample ordinance used by the city of Kaukauna.
The ordinance is aimed at protecting minors from sharing and using technology to spread child pornography.
Brownson said in some of the cases they’ve seen, even “mild pictures such as cleavage,” led to worse.
“Then they’re asking for more,” she said.
“We need to get a handle on this and be able to let them know if this goes any further this is what’s going to happen,” Brownson said.
Brownson said Village Attorney Robert Sorenson had reviewed and approved the ordinance language prior to the meeting.
Fines for violating the sexting ordinance would range from $313 to $374.
The committee unanimously approved sending the ordinance to village board for review on Nov. 21.