Teen Sexting and Michigan Law: What Parents and Teenagers Should Know

The Michigan statutes reviewed for this guide contain no separate offense for "sexting" between teenagers. What Michigan does have is a child sexually abusive material statute, MCL 750.145c, that defines a child as anyone under 18 and whose text contains no exception for a minor who creates, sends or possesses an image of himself or herself or of another minor.^[1] That is why an explicit image exchanged between two high school students can raise a legal question, even though none of the statutes reviewed names that situation.

Where to get help: If anyone is in immediate danger, call 911. Take It Down (takeitdown.ncmec.org) is a free, anonymous service that helps remove explicit images taken before age 18.^[6] Exploitation of a child online can be reported to the CyberTipline at report.cybertip.org or 1-800-843-5678.^[8] Michigan students can send a confidential tip to OK2SAY at 855-565-2729 or by text to 652729, 24 hours a day.^[9] Michigan's VOICES4 hotline takes calls and texts at 855-864-2374, and RAINN's hotline is 800-656-HOPE (4673).^[10][11]

This page is written for parents and teenagers. It explains which laws can apply, what juvenile court is, what the registry rules say about juveniles, and where to turn. It describes the law; it cannot say how a particular prosecutor, school or court will respond, and practice varies from county to county.

Which images does the law cover?

MCL 750.145c applies to "child sexually abusive material," which means a depiction of a child engaging in a "listed sexual act."^[12] The listed acts are sexual intercourse, erotic fondling, sadomasochistic abuse, masturbation, passive sexual involvement, sexual excitement, and erotic nudity, each of which the statute defines.^[2]

For a photo of a person alone, the category that matters is "erotic nudity," defined as the lascivious exhibition of the genital, pubic, or rectal area.^[3] The Court of Appeals has said that a recording that merely shows innocent child nudity is not child sexually abusive material.^[13] Whether a given image meets the definition is a legal judgment made case by case.

For this statute, a "child" is a person less than 18 years of age.^[14] That is higher than Michigan's age of consent for sexual activity, a mismatch the Michigan Supreme Court has acknowledged.^[15] See Age of consent in Michigan.

Which Michigan laws can apply when minors exchange images?

Law	What it covers	How it relates to minors
Child sexually abusive material, MCL 750.145c	Producing or making, distributing, and knowingly possessing material depicting a person under 18 in a listed sexual act; each is a felony[16][17][18]	No minor-to-minor exception appears in the text[1]
Nonconsensual dissemination, MCL 750.145e	Sharing an adult's private sexually explicit image with intent to threaten, coerce, or intimidate[19]	Applies only when the person depicted is 18 or older[20]
Sexual extortion, MCL 750.213b	Intentionally and maliciously threatening to release, exhibit, create, or distribute sexually explicit visual material of another individual in order to compel someone to do or refrain from doing an act against his or her will, with intent to obtain sexually explicit visual material or anything else of value[7]	A misdemeanor punishable by up to 1 year if the person convicted is under 18; a felony punishable by up to 25 years if the victim is under 18 and the person who committed it is more than 18[21][22]
Intimate deep fakes, MCL 752.388	Intentionally creating or disseminating a realistic fake depiction of an identifiable person's intimate parts or of the person engaging in a sexual act, where harm was or should have been foreseen[23]	The person depicted has to be identifiable from the deep fake or from personal information displayed with it[24]
Disseminating sexually explicit matter to a minor, MCL 722.675	Knowingly disseminating to a person under 18 sexually explicit material that is harmful to minors; a felony[25][26]	Concerns what is sent to a minor rather than who is pictured[25]

The sextortion statute is the only one of these that sets a lower penalty because the person who committed the offense is under 18.^[21] Each law has its own page: child sexually abusive material, sharing intimate images without consent, sextortion, deepfake intimate images and disseminating sexually explicit matter to minors.

A separate statute, MCL 750.145a, makes it a felony to accost, entice or solicit a child under 16 with intent to induce the child to commit an immoral act.^[27] The Court of Appeals rejected a vagueness challenge to that statute in a case involving requests to 13- and 14-year-olds for nude photographs.^[28] See Accosting or soliciting a child.

What is juvenile court, and what can it do?

A person under 18 who is alleged to have violated a state law comes within the exclusive original jurisdiction of the family division of circuit court, subject to exceptions for certain specified serious offenses.^[4] That court is commonly called juvenile court.

The juvenile court does not have to proceed formally in every case. If the court determines that formal jurisdiction should not be acquired over a juvenile, it may proceed in an informal manner called the consent calendar.^[5] A case cannot be placed there unless the juvenile, the parent, guardian or legal custodian, and the prosecutor all agree, and the court has considered the results of a risk screening tool and a mental health screening tool.^[5] Consent calendar cases are maintained in a nonpublic manner.^[5]

No statute reviewed for this guide says which image cases are charged, handled informally, or not pursued at all. Those are decisions for the prosecuting attorney and the court. The process is described in Juvenile sex offense cases and Who decides to charge.

Turning 18 changes the picture

A high school senior who is 18 is an adult for these purposes, and a 17-year-old classmate is still a "child" under MCL 750.145c.^[14] The juvenile court's jurisdiction described above is over juveniles under 18.^[4] For adults aged 18 through 25, Michigan has a youthful trainee program with eligibility limits, explained in HYTA and sex offenses.^[29]

Could a teenager end up on the sex offender registry?

Michigan's registry law treats juveniles differently from adults.

• A juvenile adjudication counts as a "conviction" for registration only if the juvenile was 14 or older at the time of the offense, the disposition order is open to the public, and the offense would classify the person as a Tier III offender.^[30]
• Possession under MCL 750.145c(4) is on the Tier I list, and production or distribution under subsections (2) and (3) is on the Tier II list.^[31][32]
• A person registered solely because of a juvenile disposition, in a case not designated for trial in the same manner as an adult, does not appear on the public website.^[33]
• For an adult, a conviction under MCL 750.145c is a registrable offense and cannot be set aside.^[31][32][34]

The details are in Juveniles and the sex offender registry and SORA tiers.

If an image has been shared

These are practical points, not legal advice about any one situation.

• Talk to a trusted adult. A parent, school counselor or another adult can help with reporting and next steps. Members of the public can make a report to NCMEC's CyberTipline.^[8]
• Do not pass the image on. Distributing child sexually abusive material is its own tier of the statute, and the people exempt from the possession subsection are limited to listed official and professional roles acting within their duties.^[17][35] Reports can be made to the police or to the CyberTipline.^[8]
• Use removal tools. Take It Down can be used anonymously and does not involve sending the image to anyone.^[6] More options are in Removing intimate images from the internet.
• If there are threats, treat it as extortion. NCMEC's guidance to young people is that the person making the threats is to blame, that paying or cooperating rarely stops the blackmail, and to report the account and block the person without deleting the profile or messages.^[36]
• Reach out for support. The hotlines at the top of this page are free and confidential.^[11][10]

Schools have their own rules and duties, separate from the criminal law. See K-12 school discipline and Mandated reporters of child abuse. If police ask to speak with a teenager, When a detective calls explains the general process.

What people get wrong

"Michigan has a teen sexting law with lighter penalties." The statutes reviewed contain no separate offense. The only provision found that lowers a penalty because the person is under 18 is in the sexual extortion statute.^[1][21]

"The age of consent is 16, so a picture of a 16-year-old is fine." The image statute uses 18.^[14][15]

"It is only a problem for the person who sent it." The statute has separate tiers for making, distributing and knowingly possessing.^[37]

"Every nude photo is child pornography." The definition turns on a listed sexual act, and innocent nudity is outside it.^[2][13]

"A fake image is not covered because it is not real." Michigan's 2025 deep fake law covers realistic fabricated depictions of an identifiable person, and the image statute's definition includes computer-generated images that appear to include a child.^[23][12]