It is a growing problems. Young teens — and even pre-teens — are using their cell phones in ways that can lead to dangerous encounters with predators, or even arrests that could follow them for the rest of their lives.

It is called 'sexting,' and the problem is two-fold. There have been a number of cases in DeKalb County where students have received inappropriate messages from adults (some pretending to be younger, some not hiding their age). Even more common are the cases of teens (especially girls), taking nude or semi-nude photos of themselves with their cell phone cameras, then distributing them via their cell phones.

Recognizing the problem, Farmers Telecommunications Cooperative recently developed a video to educate students on the dangers of such cell phone abuses. They partnered with Town Creek Productions to produce the video, which will be shown in schools throughout DeKalb County, Ala.

"We were very pleased to partner with FTC on another school project," says Stephen V. Smith, president of Town Creek Productions. "We have worked with them before on a project that taught students the dangers they could encounter on the Internet, and it was a huge success."

Smith says the sexting video was particularly challenging, due to the subject matter and the audience. "We had to be very deliberate with our approach," he explains. "If we handled it too conservatively, and came across too authoritative, students would have turned off the message and maybe even laughed at the delivery.

"If we erred in the opposite direction," Smith continues, "we risked creating something too provocative for a young audience, too objectionable to show in schools."

It was a fine line, but the Town Creek Productions crew found a way to walk it. "It was great working with the folks at FTC," says Smith. "They gave us our mission, but allowed our staff plenty of creative space. The result was a seven-minute piece that delivers the educational message in a way that students will be drawn to.

The DeKalb County Sheriff's Office, DeKalb County Board of Education, and the District Attorney's office provided great assistance for the project. "The most important element of the production, however, were the young people who volunteers their time to be our cast," Smith says. "They went through take after take, some days for hours, to get it right. And they did it because they wanted to be part of something special, something that could make a difference."

The sexting video is an addition to 'Playing It Safe in an Online World,' the Internet safety video produced for Farmers Telecommunications Cooperative. The project recently earned FTC the national 2009 Best Subscriber Communications Program Award from the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association.