FOUR people have been arrested over an alleged sexual assault at Altona Meadows in January.
Investigators from Footscray’s sexual offence and child investigation team (SOCIT) allege that a teenage girl was sexually assaulted at a party before the incident was uploaded onto a social networking site.
Footscray SOCIT members executed warrants and took four people into custody last week.
A Werribee girl and a Bundoora boy, both 16, a Glenroy man, 19, and an Altona man, 20, were being questioned in relation to the sexual penetration of a girl under 16 and the manufacturing and distribution of child pornography.
Detective Senior Sergeant Jenny Wilson, SOCIT chief for Hobsons Bay, Maribyrnong, Brimbank, Melton and Wyndham, said young people should think twice about what they uploaded on sites such as Facebook.
“These things have such an enormous impact … the ripple effect is enormous.
“This idea of sexting … I don’t even like to use that word, as people posting sexually-explicit pictures of children under 18 is an offence.”
Senior Sergeant Wilson said young people should also be aware that the age of consent for sexual intercourse was 16.
“Obviously, things that are posted on the internet are there forever,” she said.
“We don’t really put much thought into it now, but this can affect people’s lives, their reputations, their careers.”
Senior Sergeant Wilson said parents had to talk to their children about what was appropriate to post, and monitor their internet use.
“We’re now having people in their bedrooms Skyping and telling people so much about themselves,” she said.
“The chance of speaking to a paedophile in a chat room is incredibly high.”
-Goya Dmytryshchak
