RSSSEXTING … Teen Trend or Child Pronography … How About Both!
“Taking nude pictures of yourself, nothing good can come out of it“
What ever happened to Johnny getting up enough nerve to ask Susie out for a date outside the cafeteria or on the phone? Enter Generation WTF, “sexting” and the complete lack of responsibility and consequences to one’s actions.
SEXTING is sadly to say the latest new trend among teens. Sexting is the act of taking a nude photo of themself or others on their cell phones and then sending the pics to others or uploading them on-line. Teens think nothing of this and look at it as if it were a joke or a way to get a hot date. There is a reason why teens are considered minors, cannot enter into a contract and until 18 cannot vote. Why does it seem that teens are getting less and less responsible? Who in their right mind would think that sending a nude pic of themselves to an individual would not wind up in the public eye on the web? Sending a photo to your boyfriend or girlfriend. Exactly how long does it take for that high school relationship to go south and the pics are on-line for all to see? Teens think that the practice of sexting is cute and fun … how about it may be a crime.
According to the national study, most teens who send sexually suggestive content send to boyfriends or girlfriends, while others say they send such material to those they want to date or hook up with or to someone they only know online.
Brown, who also is Glen Este Middle School’s resource officer, said of the 14-year-old boy’s cell phone photos last year: “They were as graphic as you would see in any Penthouse magazine, I’ve been told.”
The study also showed that 44 percent of teens say it’s common for sexually explicit images and text messages – sexting – to be shared with people other than the intended recipient.
“Guys who get pictures like this from girls, I don’t think girls understand that guys gossip way more than girls,” said Taylor McCleod, 17, a Withrow University High School senior who is a teen leader for the Postponing Sexual Involvement program.
Teens have no sense of consequences in the 21 century. Sadly, teens do this as an obvious way to get attention; however, if you are 13, 14, 15 and even 16 and are taking nude photos and then soliciting them over the internet it is considered child pornography.
What part about taking pictures of minors and then soliticing them to others do not teens get that is nothing more than child porn? Teens who thing “sexting” is cute may have quite a different opinion after they appear in court on child porn charges and are labeled sex offenders for the rest of their lives.
Three teenage girls who allegedly sent nude or semi-nude cell phone pictures of themselves, and three male classmates in a Greensburg Salem High School who received them, are charged with child pornography.
Police said the girls are 14 or 15, and the boys charged with receiving the photos are 16 or 17. None are being identified because most criminal cases in Pennsylvania juvenile courts are not public.
“It was a self portrait taken of a juvenile female taking pictures of her body, nude,” said Capt. George Seranko of the Greensburg Police Department.
Posted January 15, 2009 by Scared Monkeys Bizarre, Child Welfare, Crime, Internet, WTF | 13 comments |
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13 Responses to “SEXTING … Teen Trend or Child Pronography … How About Both!”
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Ask not what Socialism can do
for you, but, ask what you can
do for Socialism. Parents of these
kids must be looking to the
government for guidance.
Please pass the Christian
Philosophy.
What in the world allowed morals to degenerate to this point? In my day (groan), if members of opposite sexes were seen in school walking hand in hand down the corridor, the teachers would intervene.
(Same-sex holding of hands just wasn’t done.)
Of course, we didn’t have cell phones either.
Might try sending a photo of me naked to someone … that would get them off cell phones for the rest of their life!
At the last HS in which I taugh, I caught a boy viewing a girl who had done this(a year ago) and took up the phone, as i was shocked and appalled. I hadn’t heard of sexting but I knew the kids were doing this stuff. The boy told me “you can’t take my f****ing phone” and after all that, the principal told me to only contact her again if something important happened, giving him his phone back of course.
All I can say is this is how our society is going, but we don’t have to be this way. Parents: stop waiting for the media to raise your damn kid! (oh yeah-it raised you, too!)School systems-on their way out. Take responsibility for yourself and your kid-now!
Be a parent people, talk to your kids and let them know in this high tech world some things are not their own. If you allow your child these privileges..yes I said privileges, then they need to understand what they do on them is not always private. lets face it what we do as adults is not always private whether we like it or not….and We as parents and providers of these things, we have the right to view them at will. Being a proactive parent is not a bad thing, being involved in your child’s world is not either. Send that message to your children and you’ll worry less at night about what they are doing when you are respecting their privacy!!!
Not to be preachy again, but as I noted in an earlier post:
MONITOR MONITOR MONITOR !
Not for anything, if I ever caught my Daughter or Son doing this—they would lose their Cell Phones for life and be on “lock down” inside this house until they graduate from College. No joke- like #3 & #4 above reiterated—Parents need to take more control of their children’s life and set boundaries that are not to be crossed—Sexting would definetly be considered one of those.
Maybe I’m hopelessly antediluvian … but is it even necessary, never mind desirable, for teenagers to HAVE cell phones? But I’m probably swimming against the tide on this one…
Last year my sons bike chain missed and he flew over his handle bars and skidded on his chin while going to school. He had to walk his broken bike home over a mile while his chin bleed badly. when he got home i thought i could clean it but he ended up with 7 stitches to stop the bleeding. Before this moment i would not allow him a cell phone, but after this i made sure he had one…It could have been his head, it could have been his life, so yes a cell can be necessary, but again it is not his own, he knows that! i get to see and read any and all texts if i feel it necessary!!! i got the phone to help keep him safe, that means I get to know anything and everything anytime i want.. you know what…..? he is okay with that!!!
why not give kids a cell phone that does not contain the text feature. At least not the picture/internet feature. you have to pay to get all that, and how do all these people on free lunch not only have the fancier cell phones, but also plans that allow picture/video texting? then in addition to their video containing ipod in the other pocket.
Im the mother of one of the boys being charged, my son goes to greensburg salem high school. a couple months ago. 3 girls (ages 13 and 14)took naked pics of there self and sent it to some boys. the boys sent the pics all over the school. my son received the pics from another boy that had received it. my sons phone was taken during school for texting. the principle went through the phone and found the pics and turned the phone in along with over 20 others with the same pics. the district Attn. decided to press charge on 6 kids. the 3 girls who took the pics of there self. and 3 boys. my son being one of them. my son did nothing wrong. the police said that ,they had to charge him cause the pic was saved not deleted he also said that my son could have had sex with the girls and that would have been OK .but its not OK to have naked pics of them.. there charging my son with 3 counts of SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN . THIS MEANS HE COULD BE ON MEGANS LAW FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE. ALL FOR HAVING A PIC ON HIS PHONE OF A GIRL HE DOESN’T KNOW. these are good kids that made a mistakes. what the girls did was wrong, but haven’t they paid enough ? don’t make them pay anymore. so what im trying to do is get the word out so people can see what is happening and how serious sexty is.these kids need are help.what they did was wrong, but there not sex offenders !People don’t realize that this can happen to anyone. what if someone would send you a txt joke, you opened it and there was a joke with a pic of a half naked person . you save it or you just don’t take the time to delete the pic. later someone finds it on your phone and it ends up that the person in the pic is 17 years old. YOUR GOING TO JAIL FOR SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN ! this isn’t just about the kids its about all of us. Please help these kids . HELP ME CHANGE THE LAW TO FIT THIS CRIME! SO THAT OTHER KIDS DON’T HAVE THERE LIEFS RUINED (sorry about the grammar and spelling)
Thank you salemskid for sharing, and adding some perspective to this issue!!! You just never know until you are there what can happen with kids. They are so unpredictable, there is no way to help keep them safe all the time. Should they be punished so severely for this, probably not. Will it help in the future defiantly NOT!!!!!! Parents should be less afraid of invading their childs privacy and more worried about what this new high tech world will bring them!!! Making them sexual offenders for the rest of their lives is not the answer, it is not even a deterrent, it is an invitation and no one is the better for it especially the kids!!!
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