School Ban Would Crack Down On Sexting--Even In The Home

While Vermont previously considered legalizing teen sexting, New York City public schools may outlaw it entirely.

The New York City Department of Education has proposed a ban on cyberbullying and sexting. Not only would the ban prohibit both practices during school hours, but they would be illegal outside of school too, according to WCBSTV.com.

The New York Civil Liberties Union takes issue with the proposal because, as WCBSTV notes,

Not only does the Department of Education want to ban sexually explicit text messaging that students may do off hours on nights, weekends and summer vacation, but they also want to punish them for it, handing out up to a 90-day suspension.

The consequences for cyberbullying could range from a parent-teacher conference to expulsion.

Donna Lieberman of NYCLU calls the measure a "vague, undefined prohibition that impacts expression outside of school." Meanwhile, the Schools Chancellor Joel Klein maintains that New York's public schools have "always been respectful of first amendment rights. I think we'll get the right balance here."

Bayside High School's PTA President David Solano told New York Daily News that the ban "empowers the school to be able to address the issue." He added, "It comes down to the fact that these kids are just lawless."

Parents seem to be split over the issue of sexting. One New York parent told WCBSTV, "What may be acceptable for a parent to their child may not be acceptable to a school and where do you draw the line?" While another parent said, "I wouldn't want them punishing my child, but somehow if we could prevent sexting and cyberbullying and everything I would be in favor of that."

A New Jersey principal, in an attempt to eliminate cyberbullying, recently banned social networking services in his school and encouraged parents to do the same at home.

Do you think the sexting ban should be put into place? Why or why not? Tell us in the comments section below.

Comments

[HBHB]

05:42 PM on 06/22/2010

No cell phones, no sexting. There's no good reason for kids to have cell phones to begin with.

[LeftRight]

11:13 PM on 06/22/2010

There's no good reason for them not to have cell phones either. I realize that when we were growing up we didn't have them, but they're now cheap enough to justify giving them to the kids, and it provides an easy way for parents to reach their children at any time...

[HBHB]

11:58 PM on 06/22/2010

I think the element of escapism and independence away from the home during childhood is a very important part of growing up. I actually don't think it's very healthy for a 24 hr a day watch over your children. I'm obviously not saying to let you kids run wild in the streets but part of that comes with being a parent, to teach those responsibilities and self awareness. I also think texting and instant messaging at that level as a child seriously diminishes the child from learning important physical and social properties. I'm seeing it happen already. I work with a lot of teenagers and I'm seeing a serious lack in being able to handle everyday social interactions. The fact that some of them would rather handle issues online instead of face to face scares me.

[AAKAlan]

03:03 PM on 06/22/2010

It's like trying to hold back the ocean tides.

Hey guys, sex is with us to stay (I hope). It ain't dirty, it ain't evil, and adolescents are in the throes of the most hormonally-driven period of their lives. What do you expect, pubescent monks and nuns?

To my mind, Sexting is not a bad thing. When I grew up, information, pictures and video of what sex was all about, and even about the anatomical differences between the genders was difficult, if not impossible, to obtain. We were purposely kept in the dark to keep sex 'dirty".

Talk about natural vs. unnatural.

The bottom line is that if you teach your children to respect and love themselves and each other, there will be no harm. And if you de-mystify sex, there will be no "taboo" to rebel against.

I suspect the real problem with teen "sexting" is in the parents and the schools, not the kids.
The damage from punishing the kids is far worse than the damage of seeing a friend naked or talking dirty. In fact, it's far worse than keeping kids "in the dark" about sex.

[Alien Nation]

11:57 AM on 06/22/2010

How about take the f'n cellphones away from kids - eliminate the distraction and let them have them when they are out of school and can pay for it themselves.

Wanna know who's fault it is that kids sext? Parents!!!

[LeftRight]

11:15 PM on 06/22/2010

Wrong, it's GOD'S fault that kids are sexting! Don't you remember your own hormone filled teen years....

[Alien Nation]

08:31 AM on 06/23/2010

Yeh I do, and I had a camera in those days and the last thing I did was take photos of my crotch and pass them around to people at school

My hormones made me call girls on the phone, have them over, and make out with them. None of that involved a cellphone.

[TruEngineHearing]

10:27 AM on 06/22/2010

Wow. So many people are just falling all over themselves trying to surrender to the authorities. I shudder. But even though a new era is here, you ain't seen nothin' yet! Wait until FaceTime shows up on the new iPhone and creates an international bordello as near as your pocket.

[Bryan Dennis]

03:50 AM on 06/22/2010

Bullying/Harassment & Violence among youth and adolescent sexuality are two completely different issues and should be debated and managed separately. This is common sense. All conflicts and issues, regarding minors attending PUBLIC schools, that occur outside school hours AND off school property should be handled by parents and/or local law enforcement. I think that the family unit in America is becoming non-existent and the schools obligation to educate is evolving into a responsibility to parent. Sexuality is natural and I don't want my children to be influenced morally about it or punished academically for conflicting with lingering puritan values. Church VS State... If OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL my 16 yo son sends a nude picture to a classmate who is also a minor and this creates a problem then I will hash it out with her parents and he will be reprimanded by ME. If his unwanted behavior continues then maybe the situation would enter the legal realm BUT all of this would be dealt with outside the school. The violence and harassment is an issue I see as much more serious- especially given the gravitation of our culture towards it.

[AAKAlan]

03:04 PM on 06/22/2010

Excellent post. Fanned.

[rtb61]

12:18 AM on 06/22/2010

Easy problem to solve. Minors can not initiate contracts only adults can, hence minors can not be held accountable for the activities of a mobile phone only the adult holder of the contract can. A sexting message is then a message from an adult with a minor acting as the agent, targeting another minor, a clear case of showing obscene material to a minor. The adult is responsible for the acts that they allow to occur upon the communications device they provide to a minor. Either the adult proves the phone was used without permission or they are guilty of aiding, abetting and facilitating a crime at the very least, if they can not prove the child was acting as the agent they are directly legally guilty of showing obscene material to a minor.

[AAKAlan]

03:06 PM on 06/22/2010

Great. A new low in the "nanny" society. A couple of kids do an "i'll show you mine if you show me yours", the most natural thing in the world, and you'd send their parents to jail as child-pornographers?

God, why do so many people hate sex so much? Just not getting any?

[rtb61]

11:36 PM on 06/22/2010

The law is the law. Two kids decide to play, meh. Two kids decide to to use technology to break the law, well now, proof is required that it was in fact two kids, proof is required that two kids were not prompted by adults. Everyone get's up in arms about paedophiles, from a digital distance can you tell what transmissions are purely innocent children playing and which did not have an adult or even a significantly older child involved. So tell me, how will you define the appropriate gambling point with other parent's children lives, whoops, got it wrong and you know what happens. The letter of the law is very complex when applied, grow up, you're behave like a teenager.

[LeftRight]

11:17 PM on 06/22/2010

Great, so now when a parent knows NOTHING about their child deciding to sext their S.O. can be arrested as a sex offender, and have to register for the rest of their lives for doing nothing wrong! WONDERFUL idea!

[HBHB]

10:55 PM on 06/21/2010

There needs to be a ban on cell phones on school grounds, period. There is absolutely no use or reason for a child to have a cell phone during the school day. They should have to hand them in to their homeroom teacher in the morning and get them back when the school day ends.

I don't think they should have them to begin with but that's parenting and a whole other argument.

[emmeaki]

11:22 PM on 06/21/2010

As long as they aren't using the phones in class, what is the big deal?

[HBHB]

09:57 AM on 06/22/2010

Because they will use them in the class. They do use them in class. Overall it's just unhealthy. The school day is very short, it can all wait till they get out. And if it's an emergency than they can go handle it in the office like kids have done for decades before cell phones.

[Alien Nation]

11:58 AM on 06/22/2010

Are kids going to school to learn or to play with toys? If you looked at them today you would guess that we are raising them to drink soda, eat brownies, and play with cellphones.

[LeftRight]

11:43 PM on 06/21/2010

There used to be such a ban. Then 9/11 happened, and the parents freaked out and most school districts acquiesced and allowed the children to have them if they don't use them in class

[HBHB]

09:58 AM on 06/22/2010

So then there should be no complaints about taking them away in homeroom and giving them back at the end of the day. Schools have managed emergencies for decades without cell phones. There's no excuse that will make me fold, one just doesn't exist.

[IDIOTA]

06:17 PM on 06/21/2010

Uh, in loco parentis gone haywire

[blindjester]

12:31 AM on 06/22/2010

Agreed.

[AAKAlan]

03:11 PM on 06/22/2010

I agree. Fanned.

[breakfast]

05:19 PM on 06/21/2010

How in the world can the New York school board presume to have such power? Ban sexting and bullying during school, sure. After hours , as beneficial as it might be, no way. I just can't accept that the school board has any authority beyond school hours. They are being the bully here.

[Vetinari]

09:11 PM on 06/21/2010

Yes, forcing other not to harass children to the point of suicide. Horrible horrible.

Curious to why you are so upset? Id your favorite pastime threatened?

[LeftRight]

11:19 PM on 06/22/2010

It's not a matter of forcing or not forcing children not to bully others, it's a matter of the school not having the authority to do so! If I have a job and I'm looking at pron on the job, then my boss has a right to fire me. If I'm looking at it while I'm at home (and not on company equipment) then they have no right to do ANYTHING!

[AAKAlan]

03:14 PM on 06/22/2010

I think there is a rationale to enforce bullying penalties. Often, a child who is bullied is tormented on the way to- or from- school. Furthermore, the school has a right to say "you have a history of bullying, we don't feel that you should be in school where you might harm other students". We all know those bullies from our childhood who just took perverse pleasure in hurting and humiliating other kids. They -should- be penalized, regardless of whether they are on school property when they do it.

Sexting, on the other hand, is a much more private activity whose harm is, at best, debatable, and the school has no right restricting expression at home or on vacation, or at any other times not involved with school.

[ArmyTanker]

04:40 PM on 06/21/2010

Good bye freedom. Not only does your employer have a right to tell you what you can and can't do in your off time. Now schools can start to enforce your loss of freedom. I don't agree or disagree with "sexting". The point is that schools should not have the right to tell a student what he or she can do when they're not on school grounds. If this happens then what comes next? How you should dress? Or maybe what time you have to be in bed? If this is the land of the free, then let's start acting like it

[blindjester]

12:35 AM on 06/22/2010

When my mother was a new teacher in a one-room school house (1930's) she was not allowed to date. She could be fired for doing that.

I'm glad she broke that rule. My dad (a farmer at the time, later a WWII vet, and after that a teacher, too) dated her and married her. And the rule against unmarried female teachers dating was changed in school districts across the country.

Kinda going backwards now, though, aren't we?

[AAKAlan]

03:15 PM on 06/22/2010

I agree, with the exception of violence. If a predatory, bullying, kid harms other kids out of school, that's a good reason to keep him out of the classroom.

[i-am-mouse]

04:20 PM on 06/21/2010

This is just stupid. Cyberbullying? Sure, ban that. Bullying is bad, just ask me! But sexting? Good luck. What better way to reduce the already-low level of respect kids have for school than to enact yet another unenforceable draconian regulation of their private lives. As others have said here, there's no way any school should have the power to discipline a student for his actions once he or she leaves school property and is not engaged in school-related activities.

Some seem to think that schools should enforce discipline because parents have failed, but the problem with that is that, as we have seen repeatedly, the solution the school comes up with in situations like this is usually some authoritarian zero-tolerance measure that catches the innocent as well as the guilty, like that overzealous enforcement of the anti-gun rule which caught an 8-year-old the other day who had plastic 2-inch-long toy soldiers glued to his hat.

There's no way to prevent teenagers from engaging in sex-related activity, and it doesn't make sense for us to try to simply ban such a fundamental human activity. Outright prohibition (of anything) just drives it underground and empowers the predators, whether they are the Mafia during the 1920's, the heroin dealers of today, or the justice system (or school system) that preys on the 17-year-old sending dirty pics to his girlfriend.

[salminella]

04:10 PM on 06/21/2010

I'm inclined to leave the kids alone about this, although I acknowledge there are valid points to the contrary. But, in no way should any behavior outside school hours be policed by the school. I'm sure they already have rules in place banning this during school hours. Evenings, weekends, holidays, and vacations should be beyond their domain.

[electricladyland]

04:00 PM on 06/21/2010

Good luck with that.

[j0hnwi11iams]

03:58 PM on 06/21/2010

Unfortunately for parents, it turns out life is a distraction from studies. Boo Hoo.

[dlivtx]

03:49 PM on 06/21/2010

If parents don't like what their kids are doing on their cell phones they can take the phone away. Problem solved.

If schools don't like kids using cell phones at school. Take the phones away. Problem solved.

Other than that, regulating content of text messages is unenforceable. When you put into place a rule that cannot be enforced you are undermining your authority and thus making the situation worse. Kids see through this and will immediately lose all respect for these "rules" and thus be tempted to lose respect for other rules as well.

[Deaninphilly]

03:59 PM on 06/21/2010

Kind of what I said, but my posting is "missing".

Parents don't use the word No any longer. No you can't have, No you can't have texting turned on. No you can't have a cell phone.

Problem solved, but that would actually require parents, doing parenting.

[dlivtx]

04:06 PM on 06/21/2010

I used the word "suic-IDE" in a post and it disappeared I think..got to be careful how you word things on this site