The message was straightforward.

Just don’t do it.

In a presentation to junior and senior high students at Salisbury High School Feb. 15, Jeffrey S. Dimmig, chief deputy district attorney, veteran prosecutor and 10-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, was frank.

Sexting, defined as the sending of digital text messages containing suggestive, provocative or explicit sexual photographs, has legal and moral consequences. Sending of pictures of anyone underage is against the law. Morally, sending such pictures can impact the person photographed, the person who took the picture, their friends, their families, their lives going forward.

Sexting is different than texting.

“Maybe you’ve engaged in it. Maybe you know about it,” Dimmig said after an informal poll of students gathered to hear his talk. Most of the students raised their hands when asked if they were aware of sexting.

“I don’t think it is funny and I don’t think you’ll think it’s funny by the end of this presentation,” Dimmig said.

In his talk, “Let’s Talk About ‘Sexting,’” Dimmig drew upon case law, examples of specific cases including a case in Towamencin Township, near Landsdale, from September 2015 in which student athletes and others used a photo sharing tool to share inappropriate photographs of other students and the poignant case of a teenage girl who committed suicide after a picture she sent to her boyfriend went viral, and his professional experience of using forensic methods on cellphones in prosecutions.

Sexting has been used to coerce, harass, intimidate, bully and blackmail – acts prosecutors “take very, very seriously,’ Dimmig said.

Jail time and a criminal record can result from convictions involving sexting. In Pennsylvania, Dimmig warned, Megan’s Law requires that many sexual offenses involving those underage carry mandatory postings of offenders who are considered threats to their communities.

“I’m not making any of this up,” Dimmig said.

And forensic tools used by law enforcement can unlock cellphones, personal security strategies and efforts notwithstanding. For example, global positioning may not be enabled on a phone; however, use of cellphone tower triangulation can target where a cellphone has been as part of a criminal investigation. And, although images have been deleted, the images may remain on servers in locations anywhere. Data is associated with every image.

“Once you hit ‘send,’ you lose control over that image,” Dimmig said.

Personal consequences also play a part. Family members and friends may be impacted by a seemingly personal decision to send inappropriate images. Also, students may be approached by others, including adults they know, to sext.

Students who have been threatened by the use of sexting should tell somebody such as a trusted adult, including a teacher, school administrator, Officer Richard Nothstein, the school resource officer at SHS or Dimmig himself, he said.

The best strategy is to not use a cellphone for such activity.

“Do the right thing because it is the right thing to do,” Dimmig said.

Megan Wieand, a spokesperson for the Office of the District Attorney, noted similar presentations on sexting have been requested and made at Whitehall-Coplay Middle School, Northern Lehigh Middle School, Southern Lehigh Middle School, Lower Macungie Middle School, Catasauqua Middle School, Roberto Clemente Charter School and at SHS so far this academic year. And several more are planned before the end of the school year.

Dimmig spoke to freshmen and sophomores at SHS in a separate presentation also Feb. 15.

“I like talking to students,” Dimmig said after the presentation. “I am just trying to help people make good decisions so I don’t see them in court,” he said.