sexting...unintended consequences.

Sexting. Probably a term that most people have not heard of before but unfortunately it is something that is going on in alarming rates. Sexting is where teens (primarily) are taking naked/semi-naked pictures of themselves with their phones and sending them to others. This is another example of how incredible technology can be misused and how it can have massive unintentional consequences.

There really is no argument that we live in a very sexually charged society and this is a very big driving influence to our children. Because of this many adolescents feel it is necessary to engage in shocking behavior just to be noticed, to fit in, or even to win the affections of somebody who has caught their eye. As a form of "flirting" they are taking scandalous photos of themselves and sending them various people. Naively they think those pictures will just stay with the person they sent them to but realistically "hormonally challenged" teenagers tend to spread things like that around to everybody they know.

What these teens are finding is that this simple slip in judgment ends up resulting in massive amounts of embarrassments, broken friendships and even physical fights and school suspensions. But what most do not realize is that there are potentially much more serious implications for sending naked pictures over the phone: child pornography charges.

A group of students in Pennsylvania have been slapped with child pornography charges by simply sending naked pictures to each other over their phones. Here is the story from CBS News:


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As I have posted several times on this blog, actions have consequences. I am sure these kids, like the thousands (which is a vast understatement) of others doing the same thing never considered that they could be arrested for just trying to titillate a friend. But the fact is if charges like this stick, these children can be branded with a life-long label of “sex offender”.

According to an article from ABC News, Bill Albert, the spokesman for The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, reports:

"It's more common than parents think and certainly more common than they'd probably hope," said Albert. "Our research suggests that one in five teens freely admit that they have either sent or posted electronically nude or semi-nude images of themselves."

I teach at a very upper-middle class K-8 school and so far this year we have had two different incidences of these types of pictures being spread around. As Mr. Albert said, without a doubt, this is happening more than people realize....and unfortunately, most parents are clueless.


I ask that if you know any teenagers or even parents of teenagers, please pass along this frightening information. What I find is that most kids do not intend for bad things to happen but sadly they really cannot see beyond the moment...it is up to us to help teach them how.

[Above picture taken from San Diego 6 News story on Sexting]