A 17-year-old girl authorities here say ran part of a child porn ring from her bedroom has been arrested for sending some fifty photographs of "gross sexual acts with children" online.
Wayne County Sheriff Robert Fianco told reporters the girl's parents had no idea what she was doing. She faces a charge of felony distribution of child porn and is free in her parents' custody. She is reportedly cooperating with authorities in further investigations.
It took a kind of Internet sting to catch her, authorities said. She became acquainted with undercover investigators in an online chat room in April, then e-mailed them a link to a file server of porn pictures once she was certain she could trust them.
Authorities told reporters they believe she wasn't working alone, but they don't know how long she was involved in the operation. Her computer has been seized, and authorities now want to know where she got the photographs and to identify the children involved.
A regional Internet task force made the arrest; the 17-year-old is the first girl under 18 to be nabbed since the force began operations. She can be tried as an adult under Michigan law and could face up to seven years in prison if found guilty, according to published reports.
