SEX-TING! It’s the latest fad among America’s teens. But is it morally acceptable?
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Sex-ting is when someone sends a text message via their cell phone to another person with a graphic or nude photo of themselves or a body part attached, and the recipient then likely uses the photo for purposes of self-gratification. And while these X-rated offerings are usually intended just for a boyfriend or girlfriend, the photos often wind up being shared. This practice has become very popular among teens who think of it as a viable alternative to actual sex. Many teens are afraid of disease, or have made religious pacts with their parents or churches. So they believe Sex-ting is an “around the bout” way to skirt the issue while maintaining vows of no sex before marriage.
Opponents of Sex-ting are looking at legal ways to prevent it, since they say it violates existing indecency laws. Last week, three teenage girls who allegedly sent nude or semi-nude cell phone pictures of themselves, and three male classmates in a western Pennsylvania high school who received them, are charged with child pornography. Last October, a Texas eighth-grader spent the night in a juvenile detention center after his football coach found a nude picture on his cell phone that a fellow student sent him.
Roughly 20 percent of teens admit to participating in Sex-ting, according to a national survey by the National Campaign to Support Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. “This is a serious felony. They could be facing many years in prison,“ CBS legal analyst Lisa Bloom said of the six teens in Pennsylvania. But, she added, “What are we going to do, lock up 20 percent of America’s teens?”
The dangerous combination of teenagers behaving provocatively and impulsively is nothing new, but the accessibility to the technology is. With cell phone cameras, they have been handed a tool so easy to use, that for some it’s impossible to pass up.
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF SEX-TING?
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