According to a recent study, about one in five teenagers have electronically distributed provocative pictures of themselves that could land them in jail. A joint survey by Cosmogirl.com and The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy found that 19% of teenagers answered "yes" when asked if they had ever "sent a nude or semi-nude picture/video" of themselves to someone via email, cell phone, etc.
And according to CBS legal analyst, attorney Lisa Bloom, "There are local prosecutors who will arrest you, lock you up, and treat you like a child pornographer." And being under-age doesn't protect them. "It is still child pornography," explained Bloom. "You don't have to be 18 to possess or distribute child pornography."
"Sexting" describes the growing trend of sending sexually explicit messages (text, pictures, or video) electronically, mostly via cell phones. The most common reason teenagers give for sending sexy content is to be "fun or flirtatious," what Bloom described to me as "the digital equivalent of what our generation did - mooning and flashing each other." Unfortunately, many don't understand the possible consequences. We live at a time when a moment's poor judgment can go viral. In Pennsylvania,
And sometimes flirtation is not the motive. In Florida, an 18-year-old male sent naked pictures of his 16-year-old girlfriend to dozens of her friends and family after an argument; he was arrested, charged with child pornography, sentenced to five years probation, and required to register as a sex offender.
Last year, the ex-boyfriend of an 18-year-old girl in Ohio forwarded nude pictures of her to hundreds of her high school classmates. She was humiliated and ended up hanging herself.
As the father of 13 and 17-year-old sons, I find myself wondering about the increasing blurring of private and public. Some kids have the misconception that electronic communication is always private. Others don't care; they've grown up in a voyeuristic world and think it's no big deal if others know intimate details of their lives. In fact, that may even be a goal. You can become famous if you're willing to let the cameras roll. Contestants of the reality show Big Brother allow viewers to watch them online 24-7 - everywhere except (for now) the bathrooms.
The answer is not to blame kids, thinking "Why can't they be like we were, perfect in every way?" Children (and I was no exception) have always been impulsive and had poor judgment. That's where parents come in. My job is to keep my eyes open, communicate with my sons (that means listen as well as talk), and - in a nonthreatening and loving way - try to set them straight when they aren't thinking right. When I discussed sexting with Bill Alpert, Chief Program Office of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, he told me, "I don't think that parents need to overreact. They just need to realize this is going on."
Alpert said decades of social science research have shown that parents underestimate their own importance in their children's lives. He noted that when asked about the key influences on their kids, parents usually say "number one is friends, number two is media, and they are number three; but teenagers themselves - in every single survey we've done over the past 10 years - have put parents number one."
So it's the same old lesson learned by the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz, who never did need that diploma to be smart. We parents have the power to help our children safely navigate a world that is increasingly treacherous. We just need to use it.
For this week's CBS Doc Dot Com, I discuss sexting with psychologist Susan Lipkins, Ph.D. You can find her advice about sexting by clicking here.
Here are tips about sexting from The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy:
Parents: click here.
Teens: click here.
Mona Gable: Coping with Sexting
Sexting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Sexting" Shockingly Common Among Teens - CBS News
Sexting can be big legal trouble for teens - San Jose Mercury News
Are lots of teens 'sexting'? Experts doubt it
'Sexting' surprise: Teens face child porn charges - Computers ...
Teen have been screwing since cave times, maybe parents shouldn't give their children camera phones?
Oh Kali! deliver us from ourselves
Remember the movie Parenthood with Steve Martin? Martha Plimpton and Keanu Reeves take naked photos of each other and then the Mom accidentally picks up the print at FotoMat. Oops!
Girls have wanted to look sexy for boys for a pretty long time. And boys have liked looking at photos of sexy girls since the first cave drawing, I suspect.
I recall snapping a roll of "peekaboo" photos (not that I had much to peek at) for my boyfriend before heading off to college. More Playskool than Playboy, I admit - but still, my friend and I did take "sexy" photos to share. (Please don't tell my Mom, OK?)
We can all agree the teen sexting is stupid and wrong, but this is just MESSED UP.
I would like the media to expose this particular story as much as they can, name names (prosecutors, judges) and put as much pressure as possible on the legal system to take these kids off the registry.
They say the registry is about public safety. These kids are in no way a danger to the community and monitoring them takes attention away from actual real predators.
Remember the Genarlow WIlson case? Or the case of the man in Texas sentenced to life for smoking a joint while on probation? In both cases the media hammered away at the stories causing intense public outrage and pressure. Even Rick Perry folded in the second case pardoning the man, while Genarlow Wilson was also released and able to restart his life.
I would like to see the media hammer away at this case too.
Isn’t the time to really start worrying about this, when you receive one of yourself? And you haven’t sent any out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Foley_scandal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Foley_scandal
The dangers of actual child exploitation are minimized when one conflates it with kids being stupid and desperate and unknowing, and by prosecuting the kids themselves you forget the responsibility which parents and other adults must recognize.
It's vital that people are having a dialogue about this issue, but a dialogue has to opened up with children as well. Without making kids feel ashamed of their growing sexuality, we have to explain the perils of this behavior, and be present enough in their lives to balance privacy with a bit of protection.
A conviction as a child child pornographer victimises that child in a manner far more grave than the alleged 'crime' itself. That charging and prosecuting a teen for this crime would be the work of adults (allegedly) old enough to know better, shows us all that teens have no monopoly on acting without adequate thought for the consequences. The teens behaved stupidly because they're teens. What's the law's excuse?
Any child who cannot use technology responsibly should have that technology taken away. This is not innocent fun, and it is not flirting. A child who does this kind of thing now will later be an adult who will do the same thing.
And yes, there can be lots of other reasons for teens sexting, but flirting is one of the major ones.
If i seem to be going on and on about this, it is because i was privy to the interception of a pornographic image sent to my friend's daughter. It was clear that he was in the bathroom taking a pic of himself with a full erection. The erection in my opinion made it hardcore porn. My friend immediately erased it after we both looked at it. She didnt share with her husband or try to find out who the young man was, although i suspect she had an idea. Parents have to be responsible for teaching their kids about these illegalities because they can have serious ramifications.
Texting is really like a drug. It's pretty close to giving a kid a loaded gun to play with. It may not kill like a gun, but it can certainly scar them for life.
http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=14164614
This example is unbelievable...
http://thebabybond.com/Breastfeeding%20Crime.html
The sex offenders list isn't about protecting the public from people who present a threat to anyone. The list is all about sex-loathing, the latter-day Puritans forcing people to wear updated scarlet letters.
It is just an unhealthy thing for them to be doing in more ways than one and it will take serious parental involvement to help prevent this behavior or they may find themselves facing criminal charges.
While I very much doubt it's their motivation, I nonetheless admire these kids for assuming the moral imperative to break unjust laws. As they become more aware of what's being done to them in the name of religiously-induced hysteria and a media that's long since abandoned journalism in favor of bread and circuses, I hope young people continue to explore the options technology offers in terms of nonviolent civil disobedience.
Nudity: occasionally exalted, frequently depressing, and never significant per se.
• in vain are schools, academies, and universities instituted, if loose principles and licentious habits are impressed upon children in their earliest years. The vices and examples of parents cannot be concealed from children. John adams 1778
Mr. Adams would be ashamed ...
just a history lesson the founders were christian and therefore were not prejudiced. the 3/5ths clause refering to slaves was a compromise with the southern states as to encourage future generations to abolish the practice of slavery, as the south wanted to count the slaves as full citizens and the founders argued that until they were free they did not count as full citizens.
they only wanted people who were intelligent enough to understand what they would be voting on, and the assumption was that anyone who owned property was committed to this country , intelligent, and industrious enough to make informed decisions.
read your history. virtue is what gives people mutual respect and removes the need for government to institute laws to control you.