A 14-year-old boy and two 13-year-old girls will spend the rest of their lives paying for a error of judgement made in their teens.

This is the opinion of many people who have commented on the 'sexting' incident involving the three minors in a town in the U.S. state of Washington.

The Chinook Middle School students were formally charged Friday in juvenile court with felonies stemming from an incident in which they allegedly used their mobile phones to pass on nude photos of a 14-year-old girl.

Within the North Thurston school district, part of the Thurston County, the photo has become viral, spreading even to the Olympia High School, Olympia being the capital of Washington.

“It’s everywhere,” said the girl’s mother, identified to The Olympian only by her first name, Toni, to protect the victim’s identity.

Toni said her daughter showed a lack of judgment when taking the nude photo of herself and sending it to her then-boyfriend, but does not deserve the repercussions that have followed.

Each of the three students involved have been charged with a single count of dealing in depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct. It is a class C felony, and carries a maximum penalty of 30 days in juvenile detention.

However, anyone convicted of the offense is required to register as a sex offender, which means the three teenagers’ names will be on a potentially public list, and for the rest of their lives, whenever they move into a new community, that community will need to be informed that a sex offender has moved in.

The implications are severe. In thirty years time, they may still be haunted by their juvenile bad judgment, including whatever treatment they might receive in detention when registered as sex offenders.

Toni has said she and her daughter do not think that the three teens deserve to have to register as sex offenders, or to have felony records follow them into adulthood.

“That isn’t going to solve anything,” she said. “But we both agree that there need to be consequences – stiff consequences.”

The boyfriend sent the photo to one of the girls charged in the case after he had broken up with the alleged victim. That girl sent it to the other girl who has been charged, and she sent it to other students, according to police.

“The 14 year old girl who took a sexually explict photo of herself should be charged/disciplined with consequences as well” (sic) commented one reader on theolympian.com.

Another insisted that “these charges seem very harsh. they are kids, we have all done stupid things as kids” (sic).

For others it is a sad reminder that the law designed to protect children, so often lets them down.

“Parents, please take time to use this incident to talk to your children about the importance of treating others with respect and dignity no matter how angry they may be”, a Chinook Middle School Parent wrote.