A young man at Rutgers University committed suicide. His roommate had filmed him having sex with another man, and posted that film on the internet. In the wake of this tragic incident, the question of electronic sexual harassment has become more urgent. This week’s quiz is about the phenomenon known as “sexting.” The term “sexting” can include sending suggestive photos, videos or messages of yourself, receiving messages with images of someone you know, and receiving sexually suggestive messages that were originally intended for someone else. Such images can become the basis for harassment, teasing and bullying. At least two high-profile suicides of teen girls have been attributed to the fall-out from sexting.
So, how common is “sexting” among teens? Read more…
Marni Soupcoff points out that the main concern about sexting is that kids have gotten the idea to do it in the first place. Here’s my favorite excerpt:
“Sexting is just the silent canary in the coal mine. It’s the sign, not the cause, of the dangerously cavalier attitudes to sex and sexuality that have been building up in teen culture for years now. The only sure-fire cure is a full-blown evacuation — a complete retreat from the mainstream movies, videos, video games and songs of the day that sexualize kids before they’ve even reached puberty (or, in some cases, potty training).”
“Sexting” isn’t a good idea. That’s just common sense. At least it should be — the pitfalls of using a cell phone to send nude photos or sexually suggestive messages speak for themselves. Unless you are a teenager. (Or Tiger Woods, but that’s another column.)
This, I am told, is why the Canadian Centre for Child Protection has launched a website and pilot program, to be used in 100 schools, to warn young people off sexting.
The result — TextED.ca — offers up discussion pages and specific guidelines for “safe texting.” The latter include the reasonable, Read more…
We’ve touched on this topic before, but here’s a little more info. Disturbing.
Charlie Butts – OneNewsNow -
Pew Research Center has released results of a survey on “sexting,” the practice mostly among youth of transmitting nude or semi-nude pictures of themselves via cell phone. Read more…
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