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Police investigating if young people having sex in viral Facebook video are minors

Sex video viewed more than 375,000 times
Posted at 2:00 PM, Jul 25, 2017
and last updated 2017-07-25 17:22:00-04

TULSA -- An explicit video showing young people in Tulsa having sex and fighting has been viewed more than 375,000 times on Facebook.

The three-minute long video montage posted Friday night was up on social media more than 36-hours on Facebook, even after it was reported. 

Tulsa Police say even though the video was shared more than 3,500 times, they can only look into it if someone comes forward and files a police report. 

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"It's a shocking video for anyone to see," Officer Jeanne MacKenzie with the Tulsa Police Department said.

Young people were recorded having sex with several of their faces easily identified. Others were recorded getting beaten up. It was all compiled into one video, put to music and shared on Facebook. 

The person who put the video together said all of the videos were sent in. 

"If a person came forward saying, 'This is me. I got jumped,' or 'This is me and I didn't share this photo,' or 'Someone took this photo without my knowledge,' then we would have some type of crime," Officer MacKenzie said.

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Officer MacKenzie said as of now, they have not determined that a crime was committed.

She said to determine if one had been committed, officers would have to see if the people were underage, intoxicated or if they gave consent. 

"You can't have pictures of naked children, but trying to determine if those people in that video are children or not would be a hard task for us, because there are certain criteria we have to go by to determine whether or not they are a child," Officer MacKenzie said. 

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It is obvious some of the explicit videos were sent out on Snapchat. 

"I've seen a lot of people say it goes away in 24 hours, but it still can be screen shot," Officer MacKenzie said. "Other people can see it." 

The person who made and posted the video wrote on their page that people in the video were laughing it off. 

"If that is true and everyone in that video gave her permission to post it, then that makes it legal," Officer MacKenzie said. 

She said laws are changing to incorporate crimes on social media. But as it stands now, police departments cannot force someone to take a video down. People offended by the video just have to report it to the social media site. 

"Just because we feel or think something someone has done is not moral, we can't do anything to them without a crime," Officer MacKenzie said. 

More than 1,000 comments were posted to the video. Some said they were proud to be from Tulsa after watching it. Others wrote they were appalled and said to pray for children involved. 

Officer MacKenzie cautioned parents to get involved in their children's social media accounts to monitor what they are doing. 

"There are cameras everywhere," Officer MacKenzie said. "You might think you are doing something that no one will know or see, but the possibility of someone filming it or sharing are great nowadays." 

Officers said if someone in the video is a minor or did not want their video published in the montage, they can contact police.