| Texting, Sexting By: Kimberly Elliott Has a guy ever asked you to send nude pictures of yourself through a text message? Or has a guy ever sent nude pictures of himself to your phone? According to urbandictionary.com, sexting is “a term created by the media referring to sending sexually explicit text messages.” Sexting has become common among high-schoolers around America. It became even more popular when a teacher confiscated a teen’s phone in Greensburg, Pennsylvania because it was in violation of school policy. Reports from CBS station KDKA-TV states, in the article “Sexting” Shockingly Common Among Teens, that the violation prompted an administrator to take the phone and “subsequently find the pictures.” They also reported “20 percent of teens admitted to participating in “sexting” according to nationwide survey by the National Campaign to Support Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.” Sexting is considered a serious felony and if caught you could get charged and booked as a sexual offender. When a 15-year old Ohio girl sent nude pictures of herself to her classmates, she was arrested and under the state law, she could be registered as a sex offender. “More than likely, they suggest she was only after a silver notoriety, the product of a culture where pornography has gone main stream and fame can be had in an instant by simply distributing a sexually explicit video with a cell phone or on the Internet” (Inside the Minds of Teen Who Post Sexual Images of Themselves by Justin Grant). There has been a lot of controversy about charges related to sexting. Jvilla09 expressed her opinion on April 16, 2009 of the sex offender charges on a teen sexting in the commentary section of the ABC news article ‘Sexting’ Teen Can Go Too Far. “If we’re going to charge teens for this sort of behavior then we also need to charge the underwear companies like Fruit of the Loom and Hanes for having images of kids in their undies on their products, or what about the images of toddlers in diapers?” yoyodog89 shares the same fury as jvilla09 about the charges being placed on these teens. “People are overreacting, why should a child be trialed as an adult for ‘experimenting?’” Study Shows Many Teens, Young Adults Share Nude Images (Sharon Jayson). In this article, research showed that 40 percent of young men (aged 20-26) and a third of teen boys have seen nude, or semi-nude, pictures sent from someone else’s phone. This same study found that a fourth of young girls have sent suggestive text messages. This study was a Chicago-based market research firm Teenage Research Unlimited, and they surveyed 1,280 teens and young adults. This study, and studies similar to this one, just goes to show that sending pictures to your boyfriend that are intended for him to see may not be seen by his eyes only. Also, these pictures sent through text messages can easily be displayed on the Internet. This could slander your name and when you go to find an internship or a summer job, you could lose that opportunity because someone decided to post that revealing picture. It is possible that, before the age of 21, you will be asked to send naked pictures of yourself. Just know the consequences of sending these pictures. Sending a picture of yourself to someone is not necessary and can be prevented entirely by saying no. Be careful! |
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