PASSAIC COUNTY, New Jersey - March 26, 2009 - The social networking world is rife with sexual exploitation of young children, but it rarely happens that the exploiters are the children themselves.

Detectives with the Passaic County Sheriff’s Department’s Internet Crimes Unit arrested the teen Tuesday. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children contacted sheriff’s detectives about someone posting photos of an underage nude girl on a MySpace profile. The center, which monitors social networking sites for illegal images of children, contacted county detectives through the State Police’s Internet Crimes against Children Task Force, said Bill Maer, the sheriff’s department spokesman.

Following a month-long investigation, detectives discovered that the person posting the pictures was the same person featured in them - the 14-year-old girl. Anyone who was “friends” with the girl through MySpace or knew her full name could have accessed the photos.

The teen was charged with one count each of possession and distribution of child pornography. Police remanded her into her mother’s custody.

A sheriff’s department spokesman told NorthJersey.com that more arrests in the case are possible.