A teenage boy in La Mesa, Calif., could be facing child porn charges after allegedly posing as a girl on Facebook in order to get other boys to send him nude photos.
Some of the teens took the bait and sent photos, at least one of which was posted on the social network, La Mesa Police say.
It is unknown how long the student had the fake account, but Lt. Matt Nicholas told The Huffington Post that the scheme was exposed after the suspect's school, La Mesa Middle School, held an assembly on Internet safety.
"After it was over, some of the students came forward and said they'd been victimized," Nicholas said. "The school administrators reported it to us."
Investigators initially thought the perp was a sexually predatory adult, but after tracing the Facebook messages, say they discovered a teenage student at the school was behind the scheme, KGTV-TV reported.
Although one source told the station that the boy wanted to get revenge against the students he targeted, the school's principal, Beth Thomas, noted that the student had never reported being bullied.
The boy has since been expelled, according to La Mesa Patch.
Nicholas told HuffPost that previous news reports the student has been arrested were incorrect and that the case has been forwarded to the District Attorney for review.