--- description: Cases are beginning to emerge in which police charge people--often kids--for using emoji in ways that they deem threatening. title: Kids Are Facing Criminal Charges for Using Emoji image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdcc721a667d5a432/69887fbbe20a8751a2a8fc7f/emoji-icons-iphone-text-messaging-kids-teens.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Kids Are Facing Criminal Charges for Using Emoji by [Victor Luckerson](/author/victor-luckerson/) ## Victor Luckerson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 29, 2016 7:37 PM CUT  Emoji characters also known as emoticons on the screens of two mobile phones in Paris on Aug. 6, 2015. Emoji characters also known as emoticons on the screens of two mobile phones in Paris on Aug. 6, 2015.Miguel Medina—AFP/Getty Images by [Victor Luckerson](/author/victor-luckerson/) ## Victor Luckerson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 29, 2016 7:37 PM CUT Emojis are quickly becoming the language of the Internet, but with that power comes a raft of new legal issues. Cases are beginning to emerge in which police charge people — often kids — for using emoji in ways that they deem threatening. According to a [_Washington Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2016/02/27/a-12-year-old-girl-is-facing-criminal-charges-for-using-emoji-shes-not-alone/ "undefined") feature on the subject, a 12-year-old girl in Fairfax, Va. was charged with threatening her school and computer harassment because she posted a message on Instagram that included a bomb, knife and gun emojis and the phrase “meet me in the Library.” Fairfax County Schools ultimately concluded the threat was not credible, but the outcome of the case in juvenile court is unclear. In a separate New York case last year, a teen was charged with making a terrorist threat after he wrote a Facebook post that included three gun emojis pointing at the head of a police officer emoji. The teen ultimately was not indicted on the charge. The incidents illustrate that law enforcement are only just beginning to figure out how to interpret emoji. A single symbol can often mean different things depending on the context in which it is used, and new ones are being added to the popular lexicon every year. “You understand words in a particular way,” Dalia Topelson Ritvo, assistant director of the Cyber Law clinic at Harvard Law School, told the _Post_. “It’s challenging with symbols and images to unravel that.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4241846/emoji-crimes/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4241846/emoji-crimes/"},"headline":"Kids Are Facing Criminal Charges for Using Emoji","datePublished":"2016-02-29T19:37:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:49:33.935Z","description":"Cops are taking postings of gun emojis as legitimate threats","url":"https://time.com/4241846/emoji-crimes/","keywords":["Tech","Media","messaging","emoji"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdcc721a667d5a432/69887fbbe20a8751a2a8fc7f/emoji-icons-iphone-text-messaging-kids-teens.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Victor Luckerson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/victor-luckerson/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdcc721a667d5a432/69887fbbe20a8751a2a8fc7f/emoji-icons-iphone-text-messaging-kids-teens.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"FRANCE-TELECOM-MEDIA-INTERNET-MARKETING","caption":"Emoji characters also known as emoticons on the screens of two mobile phones in Paris on Aug. 6, 2015.","creditText":"Miguel Medina—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4241846/emoji-crimes/","name":"Kids Are Facing Criminal Charges for Using Emoji"}}]}] ```