They may have thought it was funny, they may have thought it was flirting. But, they probably didn’t think it was a felony. Whatever you call it; six teenagers (three girls and three boys) were arrested and charged with sending and receiving child pornography. Which begs the question, why didn’t they think what they did was a crime? The answer may surprise you – the racy photos in question are self portraits taken by the three girls that they willingly shared with the three boys.
Many experts agree that the high profile arrests and highly controversial case from Pennsylvania falls under the legal definition of child pornography, which is a felony. Since their arrest, five of the six students accepted a lesser misdemeanor charge allowing them to avoid trial and the possibility of having to register, if convicted, as a sex offender (the mother of one of the boys is still considering to fight the charges against her son). The strict legal response by law enforcement and prosecutors may have been an attempt to shine a light on an increasingly common practice among teenagers: it’s called sexting.
Sexting is really a combination of two words, sexy texting. Students with camera-equipped cell phones take nude, semi-nude, or erotic pictures of themselves (sexy) and text message (texting) them to others. Most of the time, the pictures are shared between friends; often it’s between boyfriend and girlfriend. But, sometimes those self-portraits are sent to people they only know online. A survey suggests that as many as 20% of American teens send sexting messages.
The “Sex and Tech Survey” of teens and young adults, conducted by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy in January, shows that sexting is a practice more common among teen girls (22%) than teen boys (18%). Surprisingly, the survey shows that sexting starts at a young age – 11% of young girls between the ages of 13 – 16 say they’ve sent a sexting message. And, not surprisingly, teens apparently know that it’s wrong. 75% of teens who admit to sexting say that sending sexually suggestive content can have serious negative consequences. Police are investigating more than two dozen teens in at least six states this year in connection with sexting.
Besides the legal issue, teens may not fully understand that once they send the digital image, they lose control over it. The former boyfriend, for instance, can e-mail the racy photo to his friends and classmates or post it on his networking site for the online world to see, virtually forever. Is it the kind of image that a teen would want someone on a college entrance committee to see, or a job recruiter to find by conducting a normal online search?
Parents, now that you know about sexting, it’s a good idea to monitor your children’s cell phone activity. Talk to them about online safety and how it relates to cell phones. Children need to understand that they can’t assume that what they send is going to remain private. Their best friends one day may be rivals the next. Advise your children that it’s OK to resist doing anything online that makes them feel uncomfortable. And, reinforce the reality of Cyberspace, that anything sent never really goes away – so it’s important for them to think before hitting the send key.
Parents, take an interest in what your children are doing online, and learn as much as you can about e-Safety. i-SAFE provides easy and convenient i-PARENT online training at http://ilearn.isafe.org/. You can also learn more at http://www.isafe.org/, or our new Web site just for Hawaii at http://www.isafehawaii.org/.
