Delaware police talked with the family of a high school girl Friday about possible online messages she received from Rep. Anthony Weiner, according to a Fox News report.
The girl, a 17-years-old high school junior, received a direct message from Weiner on April 13 after following the congressman on April 1, sources told Fox News’ Jana Winter.
The girl went on a class trip to Washington, D.C., where she saw Weiner deliver a speech, according to those sources.
Whether or not the message was inappropriate or explicit has yet to be determined.
Weiner’s office has acknowledged the communication but denied that that it was at all inappropriate.
Update: “According to Congressman Weiner, his communications with this person were neither explicit nor indecent,” Weiner’s spokesman, Risa Heller told Politico’s Ben Smith.
Two New Castle County police officers arrived at the girl’s home in New Castle, Del., Friday afternoon and asked to speak with her mother, Fox News reports.
(YFrog glitch generates random, offensive tweets tied to verified lawmakers’ Twitter accounts)
Weiner has insisted that he will not retire following a teary press conference where he admitted to sending inappropriate text messages to six women over three years. Several women have come forward acknowledging they received online communication from Weiner, but so far none have been minors.
Weiner admitted at the press conference that he did not know whether or not any of the women he contacted were underage, only that he knew them by how they presented themselves online.
Katie Tarbox, who knows firsthand how Internet communication between teenagers and adults can go wrong, told TheDC that correspondence does not have to be inherently sexual to be considered inappropriate.
At age 13, Tarbox was stalked on the Internet by a sexual predator and was molested. She told her story in a book called Katie.com before it was retitled A Girl’s Life Online.
“If the intent is there, then that is enough,” Tarbox said. “Sadly this happens far more often because teenagers haven’t fully developed the critical thinking skills and adults tend to let their guard down far more often on the Internet.”
