Sexting

Imagine your teen facing pornography charges, as they are forced to register as a sex offender. You may think this is an image in a bad movie, but it happened in North Carolina, New Jersey, Utah, and several other states. In these states, 16 to 18 year old teens teased each other with “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours” type dares. After sending each other nude selfies, they found themselves charged with distributing child pornography. Imagine the enormous stress, public humiliation, and legal feels their parents and they faced. Parents can no longer turn a blind eye to sexting. Recent research found that over 20% of American teens admitted sending a nude selfie and over 25% admitted to forwarding a sext, which they received, to friends.

In the US today 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.

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

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.

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)

Sexting – teens sending sexually explicit photos of themselves via cell phones, email, or instand message – has become the latest in a line of highly charged issues involving kids and the internet. Sexting has become a widespread occurance that has destroyed lives and has caused emotional distress to many teenagers and young adults. Sexting gives teenagers the feeling of acceptance and the chance to be popular by gaining attention but what they fail to realize is the attention they are receiving is negative and it affects their reputation. Once a sext message has been sent, the receiver is given the opportunity to show the message to his or her peers and which will bring negative attention to the sender. Teenager’s sext for

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.

Here is current situation teens young boys and girls are sexting back and forth. Our goals is to tell everyone about the dangers of sexting and what could happen if you sexts. Some people came to our school and talk about sexting. the people who can help you are the police or adults can help you, but remember don't ask some for one or don't send one. This is important to us because I don’t want teens or young girls/boys get in trouble for creating or sending the sext on. I am also doing this for the receiver they should know what to do if they get a sexts. There can be a lot of major charges to, like child pornography, distribution, and possession any of those are a crime and you can be sent to prison. if you create the photo which means child

First, sexting is a problem among teenagers. “A survey conducted by the National Campaign to prevent teen and unwanted Pregnancy.CosmoGirl.com proved that one in five teens have taken and sent nude or seminude images of themselves”.

When searching for a discussion topic earlier this semester, I found an interesting article that questions whether the act of sexting, or “the digital sharing of sexually suggestive images” (Lampe, 2013, p. 703), by teens should be decriminalized. According to Lampe (2013), currently “laws dealing with teen sexting vary from state to state,” and forty-five states consider it to be a crime (p. 709). And in terms of enforcing these laws, “the outcomes of teen sexting prosecutions vary widely, from mandatory participation in educational diversion programs, to plea bargains, or convictions” (Lampe, 2013, p. 710). While reading this article, I was able to understand how these consensually sent and received images, even though they themselves aren’t exploitative, can cause harm if they fall into the hands of an abuser. However, that doesn’t mean I agree that this consensual act between two teens should be criminalized, so I decided to base my dialogue topic off of this issue.

In 2010, the Pew Research Center reported that 4 percent of cell-phone using teens have sent sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude images of themselves by means of text messaging ( Russo & Arndt 36). In other words this is basically stating that out of all the teens that have cell-phones 4 percent have misused them by sending a nude or nearly nude image. Clearly this research is saying that 4 percent of all teens that have phones have sexted in 2010 and the number has increased over the years. Not only is sexting used over text but online as well. According to the National Campaign 20 percent of teenagers have used electronic means to send or post nude or seminude photos or videos of themselves online ( Russo & Arndt 36). This research means that 20 percent of teenagers have posted risky pictures online where multiple people can see. It is clear you should be more cautious of things you post online for all your friends to see. There are obviously some tragic incidents that can happen due to sexting. In July 2008. Two female teenagers committed suicide because the pictures had gotten forwarded to others around the school (Russo & Arndt 36). These two girls obviously had sent these explicit photos to somebody who they could not trust. Without a doubt you should be very careful and think twice before you hit send or post. Watch what you post because it can have a negative

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.

Virginia does not currently have a sexting law. Creating, distributing, or possessing sexually explicit material depicting a minor can be charged under the Commonwealth’s child porn laws regardless of age. Furthermore, these are separate felony charges and may be charged as up to three separate felonies. If convicted, an individual must register as a sex offender. It does not matter if a minor took a photo or video of his or herself – the charge may be punishable by up to 20 years in prison if the minor depicted is 15 years of age or older, or up to 30 years in prison if the minor is under the age of 15. Possession of child pornography is a class 6 felony punishable by up to 5 years in prison. Distribution is punishable by up to 20 years in

In this policy their needs to be an amendment for teenagers exchanging photos and videos with other teenagers. The child exploitation policies and laws should not apply to this group. With the creation of Facebook, Instagram, twitter and other social media, site practices like teens exchanging nude photos or videos has become oh so common. Because of the rapid growth of this phenomenon most parents, school officials, and law makers are not up to speed. So teens are falling through the cracks and getting charged with hefty sentences for consensual teen on teen crimes.

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.