geoff40
Member
The wonders of technology, and the new problems they create.
Kids today are now "sexting" in ever increasing numbers. This is the word being used to define kids, many as young as 12, taking nude or partially nude photos of themselves, either alone or posing with friends- and sending them over their cell phones. The few who are studying this are estimating that as many as 1 in 5 kids between 12 and 14 years old has done this already. Now, lets face it: kids this age are sex curious to varying degrees. They are going to talk about it and explore in ways. Hopefully not too severely! And being the young teens they are, they are going to often be very influenced by their peers, and very impulsive, doing things without thinking about or understanding the potential consequences. The problems are compounding:
3 12 year old girls take off their tops, and standing sideways they take a cell phone profile-portrait in the bathroom mirror at one of their houses after school 1 day.
They send the picture to a few friends in their class. In an hour or 2, the entire football team has the picture, then the entire senior class, some of who are 18 and not minors. Many of them didn't ask for the picture, it was sent by a friend with a "hey look at this!" message. Including the 18 year old seniors.
Sometimes they end up on the web.
Parents get called a day or 2 later by the school for an emergency meeting: they are told we have a partially nude picture of your daughter which has been released via cell phone to the world, do you want to see it? The schools have no choice, this being the era of lawsuits, but it doesn't always prevent them. A damned if they do, damned if they don't situation. What parent wants to see a nude cell phone picture of their 15 year old daughter that she herself took? And then sent around to her inner circle of friends?
Then sometimes the police come in. This is where is gets interesting and pretty iffy. Total new ground here. If an investigation gets done, they of course look for intent: why did you send Billy that picture? because he asked me to is one typical answer, or because I thought it would be funny. This is of course the answer from 1 of the girls who took the picture of themselves in the mirror. The law is still trying to determine what to do with these cases, often on a state by state basis, or county by county: is it child porn or not? The charges being filed are quite varied, when they are filed at all. Nobody is sure this time. If a 12 year old takes a picture of herself without a blouse or bra on, then sends the picture over her cell to a couple of her friends, is this distributing child pornography? And much more to the point, what is going to be accomplished by filing charges of this nature against a 12 or 14 year old?
I work with this age group every day in a public school system. If you have teens, who have cell phones, be aware of what they might be involved in, or become involved in. Even indirectly. The police can show up, and tell you that your 17 year old son received 3 nude pictures of underaged girls on his cellphone, and let the trouble begin to rain down. This sort of scenario has happened to parents already.
Kids today are now "sexting" in ever increasing numbers. This is the word being used to define kids, many as young as 12, taking nude or partially nude photos of themselves, either alone or posing with friends- and sending them over their cell phones. The few who are studying this are estimating that as many as 1 in 5 kids between 12 and 14 years old has done this already. Now, lets face it: kids this age are sex curious to varying degrees. They are going to talk about it and explore in ways. Hopefully not too severely! And being the young teens they are, they are going to often be very influenced by their peers, and very impulsive, doing things without thinking about or understanding the potential consequences. The problems are compounding:
3 12 year old girls take off their tops, and standing sideways they take a cell phone profile-portrait in the bathroom mirror at one of their houses after school 1 day.
They send the picture to a few friends in their class. In an hour or 2, the entire football team has the picture, then the entire senior class, some of who are 18 and not minors. Many of them didn't ask for the picture, it was sent by a friend with a "hey look at this!" message. Including the 18 year old seniors.
Sometimes they end up on the web.
Parents get called a day or 2 later by the school for an emergency meeting: they are told we have a partially nude picture of your daughter which has been released via cell phone to the world, do you want to see it? The schools have no choice, this being the era of lawsuits, but it doesn't always prevent them. A damned if they do, damned if they don't situation. What parent wants to see a nude cell phone picture of their 15 year old daughter that she herself took? And then sent around to her inner circle of friends?
Then sometimes the police come in. This is where is gets interesting and pretty iffy. Total new ground here. If an investigation gets done, they of course look for intent: why did you send Billy that picture? because he asked me to is one typical answer, or because I thought it would be funny. This is of course the answer from 1 of the girls who took the picture of themselves in the mirror. The law is still trying to determine what to do with these cases, often on a state by state basis, or county by county: is it child porn or not? The charges being filed are quite varied, when they are filed at all. Nobody is sure this time. If a 12 year old takes a picture of herself without a blouse or bra on, then sends the picture over her cell to a couple of her friends, is this distributing child pornography? And much more to the point, what is going to be accomplished by filing charges of this nature against a 12 or 14 year old?
I work with this age group every day in a public school system. If you have teens, who have cell phones, be aware of what they might be involved in, or become involved in. Even indirectly. The police can show up, and tell you that your 17 year old son received 3 nude pictures of underaged girls on his cellphone, and let the trouble begin to rain down. This sort of scenario has happened to parents already.
