Young People´s Sexuality and 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

While sexual education is mandatory in almost all secondary schools across Australia, the level of depth at which it is taught varies throughout every school. Many highly important areas of sex ed, such as learning about consent, contraceptive options and violence in relationships, are less commonly taught in high school, with puberty typically being the prime topic taught in PDHPE lessons instead. But when we look at the increase in things such as sexual assault, sexual violence, Sexually Transmitted Infections and teenage pregnancy among today’s youth, we must wonder why such imperative subjects to educate teenagers on are discussed so minimally.

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

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

For centuries, society has placed a remarkably large emphasis on protecting the young from the many perceived errors of growing up. Effective sex education is resisted in many locations across the country in favor of somewhat comical biblical suggestions for abstinence until marriage even while the majority of those targeted teens are viewing the world as a more and more sexual place. So many views are weaving in and out of teenagers' newly formed adolescent minds that any effective argument for responsible attitudes or analysis of sexual behavior in teens should be expressed with a certain minimal degree of clarity. Unfortunately, this essential lucidity of advice is missing in the short story “Where are You Going, Where Have You Been,”

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.

It is no surprise that with the Internet at our fingertips and being just one Google search away from any source of information, image, or video, today’s youth have “easy access to both helpful and potentially harmful and incorrect information” (“Sex education,” 2015). In fact, despite all of the current sources of information available to young people, the Internet “has become a key source of information about sexuality and sexual health” (Rathus, Nevid, Fichner-Rathus, & McKay, 2014). As a result, youth today are far more knowledgeable around the topic of sex and other aspects of sexual health than most people were

Sexual thoughts pop in and out of most people’s mind, but especially teenagers, and there’s nothing they can do about it. It is normal for teenage boys and girls to experience this, more than ever when they are hitting puberty. The hormones in the body begin to act up and teenagers want to experience other things on their own. Males begin to grow pubic and facial hairs, and their voice starts to deepen, while girls’ breasts begin to develop and their body begins to take shape. After hitting puberty, teenagers are now at the point where they want to experience things. ‚Don’t go out there and get pregnant‛ a mother

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.

Teenage sexual activity has sparked an outcry within the nation. With such activity comes a high price. Studies have shown that there has been a significant rise in the number of children with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), emotional and psychological problems, and out-of-wedlock childbearing. Sex has always been discussed publically by the media, television shows, music and occasionally by parents and teachers in educational context. Teens hear them, and as the saying goes, “monkey see, monkey do”, they are tempted to experiment with it. Therefore, it is important for every teenager to be aware of the outcome associated with premature-sex. If students are educated about the impact of

According to definitions in The Buckingham report (2010), there are similarities and differences between the terms sexual and sexualised. ‘Sexual’ refers to sexual acts and expressions, whereas sexualised is defined as the construction of these sexual behaviours and displays. This is usually obtained by being objective as a sexual being instead of being viewed as a person with equal rights and feelings towards sex. This definition highlights the term sexual as a representation to healthy sex for the appropriate person and sexualisation as being damaging to those how are both physically and mentally not equipped to understand it or stand against it (DCSF, 2009 cited in Kehily, M.J., 2014. p 239). The growing concerns of both parents and organisations, including government ones are thought to have been on the rise for some time now. They are concerned with the sexualised portrayal of children much too young to comprehend its meaning and also claim this has led to the increased rate of mental health issues over the years and is all due to the modern age of media, commercialisation and internet. This essay will attempt to answer the following questions; Is early sexualisation on the rise? What evidence is there to suggest this? What evidence is there to refute these claims? What are the implications of the early sexualisation of children? It will conclude with a statement on whether the fears of early sexualisation are justified or purely a case of widespread panic in a modern

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.

These ideas can come from a variety of places, with peers being one of the main sources for schemata development during adolescence (Baumgartner et al., 2011). In a study conducted by Baumgartner et al., researchers investigated the influence of peer norms on engagement in online risky sexual behavior. Using a sample of 1,016 adolescents 12-17 years of age, they found that perceptions of peer norms were statistically significant predictors of whether or not participants chose to engage in risky sexual behaviors online (Baumgartner et al., 2011). Furthermore, they found that males were more likely to attempt to initiate risky online sexual behavior than females. In this case, if participants believed that their peers advocated for engaging in risky sexual behaviors online, such as sexting, then that belief works cohesively with already established schema about sexuality and sexual