'Sexting' – adults only

3-17-2009 National:

Do you “sext?” "Sexting" involves sending or posting sexually charged messages and photos, via your cell phone. It is the 21st century tech term for what was once called phone sex. We’ve all heard of phone sex and may have done it ourselves as part of an adult couple. Now we have graduated to "sexting.” As foreplay to an evening together for men and women, it can be very erotic and lots of fun.

But sexting is not just being used as foreplay for innovative adults. It is a dangerous form of communication for teenagers and ‘tweenagers as young as ten. The newest generation is playing a word game, Mom and Dad, and it isn’t Scrabble. We’re not talking about innocent lingo such as OMG and LOL; we’re discussing sex talk among teens in the most implicit terms.

If you need an interpreter for the messages on your child’s phone, there are sites that explain to concerned parents exactly what the acronyms mean. Have you seen a number 8 on your son’s or daughter’s phone recently? That’s the lingo for oral sex. How about 1174? It means a nude club, as in joining one. GNOC? Get Naked On Cam (webcam). DUM? Do You Masturbate. IWSN? I Want Sex Now. KPC? Keeping Parents Clueless. Those are some of the more printable ones.

There’s much, much more.

None of this harmless fun; it is not only dangerous but a great deal of it, in picture form, is illegal.

An thirteen year old boy in Texas spent the night in a juvenile detention center after his football coach found a nude picture of a fellow student on his cell phone. Since the picture was of someone under the age of 18, it's called child pornography.

Also charged with child pornography are three teenage boys in Pennsylvania who received nude cell phone pictures of three girls, two of whom are 14 and one who is 15. The girls had taken the explicit nude pictures of themselves and then sexted them to the boys at school. Both the boys as well as the girls face criminal charges.

Criminal charges are not the only dangers kids face. Sexting can be tragic.

Eighteen year old high school student Jesse Logan sent her boyfriend nude pictures of herself. When she and her boyfriend broke up, he cruelly did the unthinkable; he sent the pictures around their high school. Harassed by other students who called her a slut, a whore, and other vulgarities, life as a teenager became a living hell. Wanting to get the message out that “sexting” can have devastating consequences, Jesse told her story to a Cincinnati television station. That was in May 2008. A few months later, unable to take the unremitting harassment of the other students, Jesse Logan went home, locked the door, and hanged herself in her bedroom.

Remember the words, “adults only?” Kids need to understand that there is a very good reason for those words. It means that some things are not for the under 21 group. Responsibilities come with being an adult and so does dealing with the consequences of adult actions, legal and otherwise.

As mature or sophisticated as teens and ‘tweens may think they are, they’re still kids. While they may have spawned a new word for the dictionaries, they have no idea what that word is costing them in dignity, responsibility, and sometimes, in lives. ..News Source.. by Kristen Houghton, Relationship Examiner