Pros And Cons Of Adolescent Sexting

She explains that the girls she interviewed were not as much devastated or surprised, but betrayed and embarrassed. She highlights the difference between whether the teens are exploring their sexuality or being exploited. She stresses that parents need not overreact, otherwise causing a bigger disaster than the one in the first place. With a rise in the use of technology, the issue of sexting is going to become an even bigger issue. She even brought up the double standard that girls face; if they send pictures, they are a “slut”, but if they do not, they are a “prude”, while boys are not judged whether they sext or

Sexting has been all over the news. Of course its normal for someone to want to send a naughty picture to the significant other, but now we have teens (and even pre-teens) sending nude pictures to get attention from someone of the opposite sex. The pictures usually end up all over the teens school. We live in a new day and age, but most adults would be mortified if a nude picture of them was seen by someone that wasn’t

Sexting is imprudent, untoward, and unfortunately - not all that uncommon. In a recent study of college freshmen, thirty-one percent of the participants reported sending a sexting image of themselves in high school to someone else using a cell phone (Martinez-Prather, 28).This action is a felony crime in Kansas, punishable by up to thirty-four years in jail, a substantial fine, and inclusion on the registered sexual offender list for life (Mobile Media Guard). While this may seem like excessive punishment for sexting, this punishment in not specifically for sexing. Since Kansas has no laws directly related to sexting, when minors are involved in sexting, the laws they have broken are those

Utilizing social media has been shown to enhance communication, social interaction, and sharpen technical skills of teenagers. Benefits to teens of social media allow them to socialize with friends, make new friend, and even help each other on group projects or homework. Studies indicate that over 20% of teenagers log onto social media sites over 10 times in one day. A con in social media is that its has caused cyberbullying and online hate. Studies have shown that online harassment is no more common than offline harassment. Another con in social media is that sexting has increased 20% in teens. These teens have indicated that they have posted nude or semi nude photos of themselves. Teens do not realize the risk

Adolescents send messages to others in their schools, groups of friends, and their everyday peers. The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy took a survey in 2008 and showed 39% of teenage girls had “sent or posted sexually suggestive messages (or ‘sexts’)” (450). To clarify, this means that young girls are sending naked pictures to people that they are associated with. They also proved 22% of young ladies have used a computerized device to send or upload an unclothed or sensuous photo.

Americans recently discovered an emerging trend known as adolescent sexting. Sexting has been defined as the sending or receiving of sexually explicit or sexually suggestive images, messages, or video through a cellphone or the Internet. Sexting can also be referred to as sending nudes. As Guidance Counselors at a High School it is imperative that we educate ourselves and our students on the consequences sexting may have. Many students fail to realize that once the photos or messages are sent, there is no turning back. Those images/messages may be forwarded to audiences via the internet and various social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat etc, causing humiliation, depression and in some cases even causing suicide.

Every generation experiences an event or societal change that influences adolescence. Technology, specifically cellular devices, have revolutionized the culture of dating and relationships. Sexting, by definition is sending someone sexually explicit photographs or messages via cell phone, has become the new normal for adolescents. More importantly, teen girls experience the pressure and repercussions of sexting. Whether a girl choses to do so or not, she is ridiculed for either being a “slut” or a “prude” amongst her peers. Our society projects women as sexual objects through images, films, and videos in media which teaches young female consumers to objectify themselves in order to capture the male gaze. Because our society is sexualized, it is no surprise that sexting has become part of dating and the gender script. The issues with sexting, particularly with adolescents females, is that it teaches them to sexually objectify themselves in order to win the boy and keep him interested. Unfortunately, if those explicit images circulate amongst other people, the girl gets bullied and slut-shamed.

According to Justine Cassell and Meg Cramer’s article ‘High Tech or High Risk: Moral Panics about Girls Online’, moral panics about how girls use the web as a means of communication is a case that has existed for many years. Their reasoning attracts parallels between moral panics about girls’ use of social platforms in today’s world, and the moral panics that occurred in the past regarding the girls’ use of the telephone. Cassell and Cramer use these relations to explain that girls who use the internet are not completely as at risk as believed to be and that the alarming discourse concerning girls online has further to do with the parent’s insecurities about the influence of young girls and their loss of control over them than it has to do with exposure to online predators (Cassell & Cramer, 2008, p. 54). As a result of this notion of moral panic causing parents to restrict girls access to the internet for their safety, the authors argue that instead of guarding them away from harm, they are obscuring them away from chances and benefits presented with the access of the web

As mentioned before, girls in the poorer states are focused on expressing their sexuality online, and fall under the category of Freaks, Down-Ass Chick, and Pimpette. Stokes followed up by pointing out two groups of girls who were not necessarily focused on finding a partner for intercourse, Virgins and Resisters. These outliers went against the sexual scripts reinforced in the hip hop culture and were not as concerned about being involved in risky sexual behavior. Stokes also explained how organizations such as HOTGIRLS, Inc. (Helping Our Teen Girls In Real Life Situations) in Atlanta, Georgia were attempting to foster, “healthy sexual development in Black adolescent girls by integrating health and media attention focused on condemning individual artists and regulating content on channels” (125). This quote displayed how certain organizations were looking to end the problem by targeting the source of where youth of color learn what was socially acceptable. The author did not fail to eliminate any explanations, since she summed up the problem that was going on in society and how groups were attempting to combat the problem and end the negative sexual

Parents also need to educate themselves about the problem of "sexting", including the potential issues of this behavior, and the resources which can help them address the issue with their children. (Social Policy Law, 2015)

Social media has become an outlet for teenagers to communicate constantly, monitor each other’s lives, and control what they want others to see. As social media is becoming more and more popular, more teenage moral panics are occurring. A moral panic is defined as the “fear of a new technology’s or cultural form’s negative impact outside of parental control.” (Jackson) Throughout these past few years, there have been an endless amount of teenage moral panics. Snapchat is an application that has caused a great amount of controversy. With the Snapchat application, you get to control how long the person you send a photo to can view that photo before it disappears. The problem with this is that you can take a snapshot of the photo before it disappears. Snapchat has become to be a teenage moral panic; more specifically Snapchat “sexting”, which is “the act of sending sexual messages and pictures to another person through phones or the internet.”(Klower) On Snapchat parents cannot control what their teenagers are sending and to who their teenagers are sending pictures and videos to. Therefore, teenagers feel a sense of privacy, and use the application to sext, which can lead to various negative behaviors.

Not only are young girls picking up bad habits, but also interepts their healthy development (Catherine Paddock, PhD). "American Girls: Social media and secret life of teenagers", is a book that published to provide factors that contributes to safety concerns of the sexualization youth are exposed to via social media promotion. It explains how social media and smartphones develops a change in youth physical, mental, and emotional development (How Social Media is Disrupting the lives of American Girls, Nancy Jo Sales). Which brings to my attention to a news clip I can across, "Teen Shaming the Latest Rage on Social Media. " The news is warning young girl of this awful bullying trend that is taking place through social media.

One serious issue is sexting, Sexting among teens is not only illegal, but harmful and dangerous among the sender and the receiver. Both are held responsible for child pornography and can be dealt serious consequences. Sexting causes an increase in teen suicides, anxiety self-esteem and involves pressure meaning another forum cyberbullying. Exposing these pornographic photos will not only stress the deliverer but lead to sexual harassment in conclusion.

We live in a generation where it has become common to send inappropriate pictures to people who we have just met. We live in a generation where we are so dependent on technology that it is as addictive as a drug. Fellow students, let me ask you all this question, would you want to see our future generation, our future leaders, and our future role models acting like this? What is this world coming to?! In order to prevent this, I firmly believe that the correct and safe use of social media must be taught in schools.

Two years ago the word sexting did not exist. The combination of the words “sex” and “text” is now a term that is heavily discussed and causes issues for parents, students, educators, and law enforcement. Although there is no legal definition of sexting, it generally refers to writing sexually explicit messages, taking sexually explicit photos of themselves or others in their peer group and technologically transmitting those photos and/or messages to their peers. Now many people don’t know the problems associated with sexting. Most of these problems occur when one or all parties are minors. When a minor is involved there can be serious consequences that can follow a person for a life time.