A teenager had his smartphone confiscated by a sheriff because he used it to post a picture of a girl in a compromising position to his Facebook page.
Sheriff Lindsay Foulis told Stephen Taylor he was taking his phone away to “make a point” about the inappropriate use of social media among youngsters today.
Perth Sheriff Court was told that Taylor took a photograph of a teenage girl performing a sex act on another teenager during a party and posted it to Facebook.
The girl quickly became aware that the graphic image was on the internet and she contacted Taylor to ask him to remove it from the page because she was embarrassed.
However, Taylor told the girl that he thought it was “funny” and he refused to remove it. They then became embroiled in an argument and Taylor made threats to the girl.
Sheriff Foulis said: “I am in no way diminishing it at all, but people nowadays have these devices in their hands and they take photographs.
“In years gone by, if a person of 17 or so had witnessed the event you did there would have been no photograph taken because you wouldn’t have been able to.
“You wouldn’t have had the device to take a photograph, but no doubt what had happened would have been spread by word of mouth.
“But nowadays youngsters have smartphones in their hand and without thinking take photographs of goodness knows what all ad then, for whatever reason, decide it’s a smart thing to make it available on social media sites, which causes all sorts of embarrassment and upset.
“Of course, that’s bad enough, but you then made threats, unpleasant remarks, to the complainer. For someone of my age, you really do begin to wonder, but that’s by the by.”
Taylor, 18, Lumsden Crescent, Perth, admitted taking an indecent photograph of a child under the age of 18 at an address in the city on 15 February last year.
He admitted distributing the indecent image the following day on Facebook and threatening the girl in the picture – who was understood to be 17 – with violence.
Sheriff Foulis granted the Crown’s motion to confiscate the phone and said: “I will order forfeiture. It makes the point I think.”
Taylor was also placed under social work supervision for 12 months and ordered to carry out 120 hours unpaid work.