Teenagers and some adults are getting swept up in a new electronic fad, one that can have dangerous side effects.
Sexting has swept the nation, and area citizens have mixed feelings on the issue.
Sexting is the distribution of sexually explicit pictures or messages from one cell phone to another. According to several news reports, people — especially teenagers — “sext” for attention.
“More and more kids are being sexually active at younger ages,” said area college student Myra Dinger.
“This is just an encouragement that it is OK, when it is not.”
Jack Divine, Crowder College psychology instructor, thinks one of the reasons sexting jumped on the scene so quickly was as a statement about adolescents’ quick adaption to technology, something many parents struggle to keep up with.
“Most adults don’t even text, and all of a sudden the kids are doing it, and so it’s like, ‘Oh gosh, I didn’t even think to warn my kids about that because I’m not even familiar with it,’” Divine said.
And there are risks involved with sexting, risks most don’t even realize. For example, in some states, possessing an underage person’s nude photo on your cell phone constitutes child pornography.
In Ohio, ABC News reported, a 15-year-old girl was arrested and registered as a sex offender for having nude photos of herself on her own cell phone. In Pennsylvania, three teenage girls faced charges for manufacturing and disseminating child pornography for sending nude/semi-nude pictures of themselves to three male classmates. The teenage boys also faced charges for possession of child pornography, MSNBC reported.
These photos of underage cell phone users are considered “dangerous” because of how easily the photos can be sent from one phone to another. In some cases, teenagers have disseminated photos of one person to as many as 30 of their classmates.
One local resident who has sent sexual messages in text before, and who asked to remain anonymous, said, “I've never sent a pic with my face in it.”
However, she added that teenagers should not engage in sexting, saying it’s “fun” for responsible adults, but “teenagers have (too many) opportunities to get frisky with each other, they shouldn't be doing it via text, too.”
Those pictures can end up just about anywhere, including the Internet, and they can be there forever.
Though many say that child pornography charges are a little too strong in such cases, lawmakers have difficulty drafting up legal language specific enough to hold up in court. Right now, Pennsylvania is the 21st state to consider a law prohibiting minors from sexting. To get away from the strong child pornography charges, the bill’s author, Pennsylvania State Representative Seth Grove, has written it to protect children from themselves.
“We want to make sure these pictures don’t victimize kids even more,” Grove told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
But some say taking legal action isn’t the right way to go about fixing the problem, but that finding the root of the sexting phenomenon is.
“I don’t think a lot of young people see a picture of themselves half naked as a bad thing,” Divine said. “They can’t think of the consequences.”
