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A recent graduate of an elite prep school convicted of misdemeanor sexual assault faces lifetime registration as a sex offender after being found guilty of using a computer to lure an underage girl into a sexual encounter.

In the case of Owen Labrie, who was a senior at St. Paul鈥檚 School in New Hampshire when he assaulted the 15-year-old student, a series of theatrical, vulgar, and sometimes juvenile messages between teenagers played a key role.

鈥淲elcome to an eight-week exercise in debauchery, a probing exploration of the innermost meanings of the word 鈥榮leeze bag,鈥欌�� Mr. Labrie wrote in an e-mail by his former classmates during the trial. He was describing a practice among some students at St. Paul鈥檚 known as a 鈥渟enior salute,鈥� where graduating seniors proposition younger students, sometimes for sex.

鈥淲e will be exploring several essential questions,鈥� he wrote, 鈥淚s life on earth heaven? Are there any gazelles left in this desolate savannah? Can sisters be slain in the same evening?鈥�

He also used Facebook and e-mail messages to the student, inviting her to a mechanical room in a deserted academic building on campus, where they kissed and touched consensually.

Then, the student said, he raped her. Labrie they hadn鈥檛 had sex, but said he had boasted to the contrary in messages to friends.

In New Hampshire, using a computer to "seduce, solicit, lure or entice" a minor into a sexual assault carries a far harsher punishment. After the trial, his lawyers argued the felony conviction that resulted from his use of a computer was unjust, saying the state legislature intended the 1998 law to protect children from older predators and strangers online, not high school classmates who were previously acquainted.

But last week, the trial judge rejected that argument, saying the legislature had intended the law to be applied broadly in more than just cases of strangers meeting online. In one case by the New Hampshire Supreme Court, the judge said, a father was convicted of the computer crimes charge after showing his 15-year-old daughter a pornographic video and then sexually assaulting her.

鈥淸Labrie] could have used the telephone or engaged in direct face-to-face conversation. He also could have used a quill pen and parchment,鈥� Merrimack County Superior Court Judge Larry Smukler. 鈥淭he legislature has rationally recognized, however, the danger posed by the use of a computer or the Internet, which combines the immediacy of conversation with the distance of a written communication conveyed by post.鈥�

Labrie, who was previously admitted to Harvard University, where he intended to study theology, will now face sex offender registration and a sentence that could range from probation to up to 11 years in prison, though he to have his name removed from the sex offender list in 15 years if he doesn't commit any further crimes. He is due to be sentenced Thursday.

The argument by his lawyers is one that often swirls around sexual assault cases on college campuses, one expert says.

鈥淵ou鈥檙e trying to appeal to disbelief that people who know each other can鈥檛 rape each other,鈥� says Jennifer Long, a former assistant district attorney who co-founded AEquitas, an organization that trains lawyers in prosecuting cases of sexual violence, in a recent interview.

People who study sex offenders, she says, 鈥渁lways warn us about putting ourselves in the shoes of offenders, because they use common behaviors, niceness, trust, and technologies that can be used for good, like the Internet, to perpetrate their crimes.鈥�

Much of the trial focused on contrasting portrayals of the assault and of the culture that surrounded students at the elite school, which was characterized variously as a toxic mixture of misogyny and entitlement perhaps best symbolized by the senior salute, though some alumni said they did not recognize that portrayal of the school.

鈥淪t. Paul鈥檚 School failed the children with their attitude toward the senior salute,鈥� J.W. Carney, Labrie鈥檚 lawyer, said during the trial. He said the school was a place where boys living away from home felt pressure to act like 鈥渟tuds,鈥� the New York Times .

Some observers say perceptions of Labrie 鈥� a soccer captain and school prefect who attended St. Paul鈥檚 on a scholarship 鈥� may have clouded larger issues around sexual assault, particularly the issue of consent.

鈥淚 think there鈥檚 been a lot of sympathetic coverage of this young man,鈥� says John Foubert, president of the non-profit One in Four, which works to end sexual assault on college campuses and a professor at Oklahoma State University. 鈥淥ne of the things that we鈥檝e learned about perpetrators is that they鈥檙e very adept at convincing people that they鈥檙e nice guys and didn鈥檛 mean to do what they did ... and I think that鈥檚 what happened here.鈥�

The issue of consent 鈥� which has been hotly debated on college campuses that have introduced so-called affirmative consent or 鈥測es means yes鈥� policies 鈥� also loomed over much of the trial, though it wasn鈥檛 heavily discussed, observers say.

鈥淲hen you鈥檙e talking about consent, there is a tendency to take that first moment of consent and bring it all the way through,鈥� says Ms. Long, the former prosecutor. 鈥淧eople sometimes forget about those common-sense things,鈥� she adds. 鈥淛ust because you agree to one thing, doesn鈥檛 mean you鈥檝e agreed to everything, and you have the right to stop and say, 'I don鈥檛 want to do this anymore.' "

After the trial concluded, officials from St. Paul鈥檚 acknowledged that the issues raised about consent and the use of social media by students to describe sexual conquests in often-blunt terms were troubling.

鈥淲e have been painfully reminded of the fact that social media can provide an adult-free space for negative student culture to form and perpetuate itself,鈥� the school鈥檚 rector Michael Hirschfield said in a .

While the school attempted to distance itself from senior salutes, saying they had only heard of the so-called 鈥渢radition鈥� in 2013, the victim鈥檚 family said the school still bore some responsibility.

鈥淲e still feel betrayed that St. Paul鈥檚 School allowed and fostered a toxic culture that left our daughter and other students at risk to sexual violence,鈥� the family said in a after the trial concluded. 鈥淲e continue to feel anger and disappointment for the lack of character and integrity that the young men of St. Paul鈥檚 School showed, laughing and joking with Owen Labrie at graduation about 鈥榮laying鈥� our daughter.鈥�

But Mr. Foubert says that for survivors of sexual assault, social media could have a more positive impact, helping them share information from across the country.

鈥淚 think another broad thing that鈥檚 happened is that survivors have begun to find each other and help each other navigate the process of reporting and addressing an assault,鈥� he says, noting that students on college campuses have been particularly active in raising cases where an institution did not fully address their assault with the federal Office of Civil Rights.