SEXTING … 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.

• Teens Face Criminal Charges For ‘Sexting’
• Racy ‘sexting’ photos piquing police interest
• Teens Engage in Sexting
• “Sexting” And The Fight To Protect Teens

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.