Teens who are 'Sexting'

With this week talking about cell phones I saw an article about an ‘epidemic’ that is happening among teenagers and their cell phones…SEXTING. What exactly is sexting you may ask? It is sharing sexually explicit videos, photos, and chat by cell phone or online. It is becoming a more common thing for the teen generation and even younger to be doing even though it is starting to come with some harsh penalties.

A 16-year old teen boy named Sammy, from the San Francisco Bay Area said he had shared nude pictures of himself with his girlfriends and nude pictures of other people he sent on after getting them from another friend. He said he didn’t realize that other young people from Florida, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania had faced felony charges for doing the same thing.
Research shows that teen’s brains aren’t quite mature enough to make good decisions consistently. They don’t think that this could be potentially harmful for them to participate in and possibly even affect their future. It could get into the wrong hands like potential employees or college admissions office. We have talked about this previously in class that once something is put out on the internet it NEVER goes away or that no matter what you have your Facebook privacy setting on someone will be able to see it and it could harm you down the road.

However, sexting doesn't stop with teenagers. Young adults are even more likely to have sexted; one-third of them said they had been involved in sexting, compared with about one-quarter of teenagers.

In an article from CBSnews.com I read first hand just how serious the law is taking on the subject of ‘sexting’. At the beginning of this year three teenage girls in a western Pennsylvania school had allegedly sent nude or semi-nude cell phone pictures of themselves to three male classmates that are charged with child pornography. The problem here is because the girls are 14 and 15 years old where the boys are 17 years old. When I read that I could not believe what I was reading. When I was that age I was worried about what to wear to school and boys still had cooties. Times are changing and it has only been 8 years since I was that age. What the heck is to come for us in the next 8 years? Another example is an eighth grader from Texas spent the night in a juvenile detention center after his football coach found a picture of a nude female on his cell phone.

I think parents these days need to carefully monitor what their teens are doing. Especially since kids these days are getting cell phones at such an early age. My younger sister is 13 years old and a seventh grader and she still doesn’t have a cell phone. Thank God! I was a senior in high school when I got a cell phone and I survived. Your teen might kick, scream, and yell at you and say you are invading their privacy but like I stated above and research shows that teens don’t always use the best of their judgment.