Tribune Opinion: Dangers of sexting becoming evident

12-10-2009 Colorado:

Remember when you had to whisper something risqué into the basement phone and hope your parents — or your boyfriend's or girlfriend's parents — were too busy yelling at the contestant to buy a vowel on “Wheel of Fortune” to care?

Now, thanks to some tech geek's idea to put cameras in cell phones, our children face a new danger.

Media representatives, because we're clever, call it “sexting.”

“Sexting,” as you might guess, is texting with — well, you get the picture. And pictures are exactly the problem. Teens these days have somehow figured out to text one another and attach sexually explicit photos and videos. We are shocked — shocked! — that they would do this.

The problem is it can mean serious trouble.

When you say something, it disappears into the air. But people can save those texts and photos, and sometimes, they can use them for no good.

In fact, a 20-year-old was sentenced to four years in prison for extortion just last week for attempting to pry money out of a Weld County teen. She sent the California college student sexual photos and videos after starting a relationship with him, and he threatened to send them to her friends unless she paid him $1,500.

In other cases, sexting abuse has led to at least two teen suicides nationally (Florida and Ohio).

Not only is this dangerous, and quite frankly stupid, it could be illegal. Sending explicit photos over the Internet or through cell phones is considered sexual exploitation. You get caught for that, and you have to register as a sex offender and face being shunned for the rest of your life by neighbors who won't want you living nearby.

Relationships, especially those between teens, can be emotional, unpredictable and sometimes cruel.

The sad thing is some teens who send along these photos may not really see the harm, or they may be so wrapped up in a good relationship that they don't think about the consequences. A classic stereotype of teenagers (and a more accurate one than they are willing to admit) is that they often are incapable of thinking about the consequences of an action.

Unfortunately, this means the naive, trusting nature that makes teens (occasionally) sweet, kind and fun should probably be switched off and replaced with a hard, questioning look at potential significant others or even friends, especially when it comes to sending photos through a cell phone.

This means parents now have something else to worry about. We need to remind our teens that even seemingly harmless photos — a photo of them making a gesture to the camera, for instance — can haunt them later in life.

Since it's nearly impossible to find a decent, working cell phone without a camera, at least tell teens to leave the camera off and urge them to tell their friends to do the same.

New technology can be convenient, but with it comes more potential for embarrassment than ever, even the time when you asked that cute girl or boy to the prom just as Dad got on the other line. ..Editorial Source.. by The Tribune