KS- What's the real story behind ‘sexting'?

1-1-2009 Kansas:

Mom and Dad are afraid. Very, very afraid.

One in five kids have used their cell phone to send sexy or nude photos of themselves, according to an online poll by Teenage Research Unlimited (TRU), a trend analyst firm in Chicago.

The poll surveyed 1,200 kids online. The kids had signed up as volunteers to take TRU surveys. The study was sponsored by CosmoGirl! magazine and the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

The results became national news and adults dubbed it "sexting." Newspaper and television headlines asked worried parents, "Is your teen sexting?"

No one asked: "Is this a real trend or adults just totally freaked out?"

Adults may just be nervous, according to the results of an academic study. The Digital Youth Report was the result of a three-year project in which 28 researchers studied new media and teens. The researchers interviewed 800 kids and young adults in person. They also observed more than 5,000 hours of online activity.

Sociologist CJ Pascoe and her research assistant interviewed 80 kids for the project and said sexting was not a major issue. "No one brought it up," said Pascoe, an assistant sociology professor at Colorado College. "I had them go through their last 10 messages, their last 10 photos and I never saw it."

Sexting was not a common enough practice to make it into the report. Instead, Pascoe suggested that adults have fears about teens and the Internet.

"I think what makes adults nervous about new media is they have a window into a teenager's world for the first time, " Pascoe said. "Teen culture has been around since the 1950s and teens have been pushing the boundaries since the 1950s but adults haven't seen it."

Before the digital age, parents had to snoop through a teen's diary or spy on them with their friends to get a glimpse into their kid's private life. Now parents can easily see how teens interact with their friends by visiting their Facebook or MySpace page.

The vast majority of kids are not likely to take nude photos and press "send." There are some kids, however, who have taken suggestive photos and sent them to peers.

In his clinical psychiatry practice, Louis Kraus has seen middle and high schoolers who have sent racy photos by phone or computer.

"Boys do it for exhibition, girls do it in response or request from a boy. That's what I've seen repeatedly," said Kraus, chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

Both boys and girls don't realize the consequences because there isn't an immediate response. "They don't realize how quickly they can be put on the Internet and where it can be sent," Kraus said.

Photos taken on the cell phone can be quickly transferred to a computer. Once posted online, control is completely lost, said Michelle Collins, executive director for the exploited child division at the National Center for Exploited and Missing Children.

"I have heard case after case of teenagers who have sent a photograph to someone and fully expect it to stop there," Collins said. "They learn the consequences."

One teenage girl learned the consequences after she used her cell phone to take a nude photo of herself. "It was forwarded to the full school," Collins said.

The father approached Collins at a conference and shared his story. Collins said the experience was humiliating for both the girl and her family.

Still, Collins finds the results in the TRU survey to be a bit high. "I was shocked when I saw that number," Collins said. "But it is something that is going to become more of a problem." ..News Source.. by EMILIE LE BEAU, McClatchy-Tribune News Service