SEXTING??….WWWWHATTTTT????
If you are anything like me, you are constantly on the cell phone: answering calls, texting friends and browsing the internet. A new craze has swept through teens called sexting. For those that don’t know, sexting is the use of a cell phone or computer to distribute pictures or video of sexually explicit images. In most cases, teens send pictures of themselves to either a boyfriend or girlfriend. However, this phenomenon is not just amongst teens. Celebrities such as Vanessa Hudgens, Paris Hilton, and NBA star Greg Oden have all had their private pictures posted on the internet. But let’s focus on teen sexting.
In a recent poll, 20% of teens admitted to sending nude or seminude pictures of themselves to their partner. Although the picture is only for your significant other, you have no control over who else will see that photo. There is a great possibility that your photo will be shared with friends, shared with more friends, and so on. It is impossible to know whose hands your photo will end up in.
What about the people that have these sexting photos? Under the Child Pornography Laws, anyone that has pictures of naked girls under the age of 18 can be prosecuted as sex offenders and face jail time. That also means registering as a sex offender. Think it can’t happen to you? There have been ten states that have already prosecuted people that possess sexting pictures. It doesn’t end with cell phones. Myspace, Facebook and other social networks where teens can post pictures of themselves is becoming a problem. Photos that are posted up on a profile will live on the internet forever. Anyone with a computer can look at your image and save it to their computer.
The repercussions of sexting can be very problematical. Take the story of Jesse Logan. In 2008, the teen sent nude pictures through text message to her boyfriend. After their breakup, he proceeded to send all of those pictures to everybody at her high school. Jessie suffered vicious harassment, abuse and name calling from her fellow classmates. As a result, she became depressed and afraid to go to school and eventually dropped out. Two months later, Jesse committed suicide at the age of 18. Bottom line, don’t share any pictures that you don’t want haunting you for the rest of your life. Make good Decisions!
Ruben Dominguez 
