The suicide of a 14 year old girl has highlighted again a serious problem among today's teens, sexting. Sexting is when teens send sexually suggestive or explicit pictures to one or more friends or romantic interests. This girl sent a topless picture of herself to a guy she was interesting in dating. He immediately forwarded it to some of his guy friends, who then forwarded it to their friends. Soon it was all over her school. She couldn't walk anywhere in school without people making comments to her. It quickly got to the point where she just couldn't take it anymore. Don't think this is some isolated phenomena. A recent survey found that one third of young adults age 20 to 26, and 20% of teens have sent a naked, or semi-naked picture of themselves via text messaging.
What many teens don't realize is once something enters the electronic media, it is there to stay. In addition, teens are being arrested for possessing child pornography, and trafficing child porn when maintain or send a sexually explicit picture through text messaging.
How should a parent of a teen respond? I recommend that you talk to your teen about this. Start by asking what they have seen or heard regarding sexting. Share with them your concerns and point out to them what some of the consequences are for doing this, or even recieving a message and keeping it on their phone. You might also ask your cell phone provider what options you have as a parent to monitor or block the text messaging your child does.
I don't know about you as a parent, but everytime I think I am catching up with the technology curve something else comes along, seemingly out of nowhere. Now, more than ever, stay in touch with your kids and be technology savvy.
Blessings,
Dr. Paul
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