Every generation of teenagers engages in sexual exploration. The vast majority of the current generation owns a cell phones and engage in high levels of texting. Combine these trends and you get teenagers sending sexual photos, videos or texts from one cellphone to another, a practice loosely referred to as “sexting”.
The number of teenagers involved is significant. The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project found that one in six adolescents (age 12 to 17) has received via cell-phone a sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude photo or video of someone they know.
Sexting does not necessarily equate with increased sexual activity. A recent New York Times article described “the primary reason teenagers sext is to look cool and sexy to someone they find attractive”. But sexting does bring with it significant risk of abuse, especially when the status of the relationship changes and pictures get into the wrong hands. At that point it becomes cyberbullying. And in some jurisdictions the teenagers that disseminate the naked pictures of their peers are being prosecuted under child pornography laws.
How should adults respond? Is criminalization the answer? (At least 26 states have tried to pass some sort of sexting legislation since 2009.) Do we give principals the power of search and seizure over student cell phones, a practice authorized by many school districts? What do you think?
