6-19-2009 Mississippi:
BILOXI, MS (WLOX) - "Today, bullying is also happening technologically: Lies, rumors, gossip," a crime victims expert told a group of school resource officers Thursday.
The officers are responsible for the health and safety of your children at school. These days, they deal with more than just teen violence, suicide prevention, and bullying.
"Now officers have to assume the role of officer/educator, where they're responsible for crisis planning, school safety assessments, mentoring at-risk students, as well as conducting character education training in the classroom," said Robert Laird, School Safety Director for the Mississippi Department of Education.
In order to better protect students, school resource officers have to stay ahead of the game. The means they have to learn about the latest designer drugs, how to deal with a pandemic like the Swine Flu, and how to respond to a terrorist attack. 
One of their biggest challenges is keeping track of how teens use technology and understanding things like Twitter and sexting.
"In almost all school violence cases, the persons who acted out any type of aggression have told someone," said Ben Brown, the Chief SRO for the George County School District. "So social networking sites are the main form of communication now. If we monitor that, hopefully we can find that out and intervene before something does happen."
These latest trends and techniques are part of the training at the Safe and Drug Free Schools Conference at Biloxi Jr. High this week. The lessons can help the officers respond to a crime or any other crisis, so students can feel safe when they set foot on campus.
"They can focus on their school work and not have to worry about someone bullying them or intimidating them or causing them harm," said Brown.
School administrators, law enforcement officers, and teachers are also attending the conference. On Friday, the topics will focus on body language, gangs, and sexual misconduct. ..Source.. by Trang Pham-Bui
June 19, 2009
MS- Bullying, drugs, sexting among concerns facing school officers
May 4, 2009
CT- Parenting teens: ‘Sexting’ is this generation’s streaking, skinny-dipping
In one sense, it would be great, on certain days, for my 13-year-old to have a cell phone. Until I heard from his school, I was uncertain if he would be staying afterward for an activity. I worried incessantly that he get picked up at the right time and not be stranded.
Yet cell phones are the tool for the sexting craze that has dumbfounded adults and lawmakers who are wrestling with laws meant for child sex offenders that are becoming tangled up with underage sexting participants instead.
Sexting is the act of sending a nude photo or video of yourself via cell phone — a craze that has hit the younger generation with the same senseless fervor as streaking in the ’70s. But perhaps it holds a broader appeal because of the seeming innocuousness of the act — it requires less boldness. But it can brew much more trouble, with a deeper impression than a “streak.”
A ‘present’
What if my son received, in a year or so, a sext from a younger girl? It’s possible. Of the 20 percent of teens who reportedly sext, one of the top reasons, cited from girls (who are more frequent sexters) is to send their boyfriends a “sexy present.”
This year, two dozen teens in at least six states are being investigated for sending nude images of themselves in cell phone text messages. These actions can set them up for charges of distributing child pornography.
It renders the confusion of when my kid is being picked up at school pale in comparison.
Even if your child isn’t caught up in a legal battle, if they do sext, it’s possible an image of them will stay in cyberspace for a long time — enough to haunt them at college and job application time. Or humiliate them.
While it may seem shocking for adults that teens as young as 12 are sexting, we need to get over it, and put in place legislation to protect them, as well as provide education to raise awareness of the consequences. One challenge is the porous relationships that can happen between kids as young as middle school.
Vermont is proposing an exemption from criminal charges for people ages 13-18 who sext consensually. But some understandably disagree with the proposal. I would be upset if an 18-year-old was trying to initiate sexual contact with my tween.
But oftentimes sexting, despite its name, isn’t really about sex.
Yes, it can be flirtatious, or it can be a few girls as young as 12 posing in their bras, with someone not thinking and pressing the send instead of delete button. We can’t stop kids from being kids. And if we think about it, how much different are some of these episodes than skinny-dipping?
The difference is skinny-dipping, of course, is an ephemeral visual, shared only between the people, the moonlight and the moment in time.
Unless cell phones go away, which seems improbable, sexting is here to stay, so we need to deal with it with updated laws that reflect the digital age.
And it also means asking yourself when your kid is ready for unsupervised cell phone use. Cell phones may ease parents’ minds, but it can also open a Pandora’s box they might never be able to get shut again. ..News Source.. by SHARMA HOWARD
April 29, 2009
MI- Flint Journal Editorial: Law, civility lag behind 'sexting'
4-29-2009 Michigan:
Most adults would agree that teenagers who engage in "sexting" play a foolish game that could haunt them in the years ahead, if not sooner. But even the most disapproving critics of this raging fad must be taken aback at Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton's threat to lodge felony charges against at least one youthful "sexter."
While not sharing all the lurid details, Leyton apparently is relying on child pornography laws that protect children and youths younger than 18 -- penalties being up to seven years in prison for distribution of sexually provocative images of an underage person and 20 years for creating the images.
While an offender might dodge the maximum sentence, especially in a first conviction, he or she would have to register publicly as a sex offender, with ruinous results to reputation and the potential elimination from many future opportunities.
Leyton would need a high standard of justification to impose such a burden on a teen who did not believe he was being criminal or even malicious. The prosecutor addresses that concern by implying such charges should be brought rarely and with great caution but are sometimes justified nonetheless -- all of which suggests reasonable restraint.
Surely the presence of a clear victim needs to be the basic component.
But in most cases, proving victimization could be tricky. "Sexting" has spun out of control because many teens are creating and distributing pictures of themselves in various states of undress, usually via their ubiquitous camera-equipped cellphones. Thus they think it's all in innocent, good, clean fun -- or for some, part of a mating ritual.
So let Leyton's recent announcement serve as a lesson that "sexting" can have legal consequences, even for those blind to any personal ones.
We see the law getting involved, for instance, in a Grand Blanc High School case that involved transferring a photo of a topless female student to many cellphones, leading to suspensions and a police investigation.
Perhaps in a worse case, Holly police investigated into a complaint against a 16-year-old who took cellphone photographs after crawling into the high school girls locker room.
But most "sexting" is less abusive, and by some estimates, a full 20 percent of teenagers have indulged in the practice in some manner. It points to a coarsening of culture, enabled by high technology that has developed so rapidly that neither law nor common civility has kept apace.
One thing that has not changed is the role of good parents, who would like to spare their children from choices that can backfire and do them great harm.
Talking honestly about sex has been one way to give guidance, but now it seems necessary to talk about technology, too, and to monitor and limit its uses. ..News Source.. by Flint Journal Editorial Board
April 27, 2009
Woman to woman: Consequences for sexting could be missing the mark
4-27-2009 National:
Should we decriminalize the sending of racy photos via call phones by teenagers?
Good news. Our courts are going after child pornographers with a vengeance, using technology such as cell phones and social networking sites to locate and trap these heinous criminals and throw the book at them. The only glitch is that the scum appears to be our kids.
Youthful hormones and high-tech communication have dovetailed, and the result is sexting: sending racy pictures via cell phone.
Think this dangerous and vile behavior is part of an edgy subculture? A recent survey by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy claims that 20 percent of our teens are involved in sexting activities.
"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity," Einstein once said, making me wonder if he saw this one coming.
I'm shocked by how widespread this activity has become and grateful to live in a community filled with adults who are on it in a big way, from academic and home life consequences to strict monitoring of teen behavior. Still, I'm more shocked by the way the law has swooped in to label young, impulsive teenagers as child pornographers.
Really? That's how we fix this? A boy in Texas is arrested on child pornography charges for simply having a racy photo on his phone. A 14-year-old New Jersey girl posts explicit pictures of herself on MySpace and could be forced to register as a sex offender under Megan's Law.
Even Maureen Kanka, Megan's mother, is appalled. "This shouldn't fall under Megan's Law in any way, shape or form," the mother of raped and murdered Megan Kanka declared, understanding that the MySpace exhibitionist needs help, not an avalanche of legal restrictions that will ruin her life forever.
Legislators in Vermont are trying to stop the madness, creating a bill that would remove the most serious legal consequences for sexting kids, such as a lifetime on the state's sex offender registry. However Vermont's governor is disinclined to support such a bill, feeling that decisions about these charges should be left up to prosecutors.
Either Gov. Jim Douglas hasn't been reading the same stories I have, or he thinks the best way to deal with teens is to brand them child pornographers and sex offenders. Makes me kind of wonder if it's our legal system that has exceeded our humanity.
Andrea Cornell Sarvady is a writer and educator in Atlanta. She received a bachelor's degree in English from San Francisco State University and a master's degree in counseling with an emphasis in marital and family therapy from the University of San Francisco. Her writing career developed in tandem with her nonprofit and educational endeavors, including teaching developmentally disabled adults.
Making young teens register as sex offenders is foolish, but decriminalization is not the solution - especially for those who pass along sexual images without consent. Let's not ignore the most relevant question: Is this new and exploding behavioral trend good, bad or neutral for those involved and for the public at large?
Many must believe it is neutral or even trivial, if they prefer no systematic consequences. But it is flat-out wrong and dangerous, often with life-impacting consequences for those involved. Especially for the female subjects who are left with their reputations in tatters and futures in doubt, while the teen male traffickers get off scot-free.
As Vicki Courtney, author of "Five Conversations You Must Have With Your Daughter," said: "Girls often are convinced to do this for the guys to get their attention. Then in a breakup situation, the guys often use it against them later. If you legalize sexting, the guys come out as the clear winners. The girls pay."
One of the main reasons teens do this is that they don't think it's a big deal. And how will they ever recognize that it is without systemic consequences?
Most of these same kids never would steal a DVD or some other item from a store. They may be tempted to do so, but they know it is wrong and that if they get caught they will be punished. Being 15 years old and stupid is no excuse.
Passing along someone else's sexual image is far worse than stealing, yet Andrea wants to make being young and impulsive a legal free pass.
By contrast, Kari Glemaker, national director for iCare, an initiative of the National Coalition for the Protection of Parents and Families, said: "If you shoplift as a minor, there is still a consequence, just not as big as for an adult. Similarly, my county is looking to define sexting as a misdemeanor, without jail time if there is no other criminal background, possibly with a fine or community service, as well as awareness classes. To say there should be no legal consequence until age 18 is ludicrous."
Andrea and those other parents agree that sexting is a big deal, but they are saying that we shouldn't treat it as such. I say if we don't treat it as the big deal it really is, then teenagers will never realize it is one.
Shaunti Feldhahn began her career as an analyst on Wall Street and became a best-selling author and speaker who also writes a weekly opinion column for the online edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. A graduate of the College of William and Mary with a bachelor's degree in government and economics, she earned a master's degree from Harvard University in public policy. ..News Source.. by Shaunti Feldhahn
April 23, 2009
IL- Ellen Goodman: ‘Sexting’ isn’t porn ... but it sure isn’t a good thing
4-23-2009 Illinois:
BOSTON — I am sure that Vermonters don’t like the idea of teens sending sexy pictures from one phone to another. Nor do Ohio and Utah parents want their kids using cell phone minutes to bare their bodies with their buddies.
Nevertheless, their state legislatures are among the first trying to sensibly ratchet down the penalties for sexting. They are backing away from laws that currently treat a teenager with a cell phone the same way they treat a child pornographer. They know there’s a difference between truly dreadful judgment and a felony.
Over the last months, “sexting,” that spicy combo of sex and texting, has created something between a moral panic and a reprise of “Trouble in River City.” Parents who have barely begun to absorb the too-much-information on Facebook are now confronted with research suggesting that one in five teens has sent or posted scantily clad or nude pictures of themselves.
If sexting sends parents into a spiral, it pushes prosecutors into high gear. We’ve had Pennsylvania high school girls threatened with child porn charges for posing. We have a middle school boy in Indiana facing obscenity charges for sending a naked photo to his classmates. We even have an 18-year-old who sent nude photos of his girlfriend now listed as a sex offender alongside child rapists.
The panic not only erases the line between the stupid and the criminal, it dilutes the real horror of child pornography. If a 13-year-old taking a picture of herself is the equal of a predator taking a picture of children in sex acts, says Danah Boyd, at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, “we won’t have the tools to go after the people we need to go after.”
The mislabeling also hides the reality of this technological and social harm.
There is nothing particularly new about young people taking pictures of themselves. It’s as old as the Polaroid. Nor is there anything new about the private going viral. It’s older than the photos of a naked Jackie O on a Greek island. What’s different now is that teenagers can be their own paparazzi and be vulnerable to the humiliation once reserved for celebrities.
As Amanda Lenhart of the Pew Internet and American Life Project says, “You have at your fingertips the ability to take pictures of a beautiful cherry tree or yourself in underpants. Teens are doing all that.” Once you hit the send button, you’ve lost control. “Pixels,” says Lenhart, “are devious and scurry out of your grasp.”
The photo that is sent in a reckless or mean moment can travel around the world as fast as Susan Boyle singing “I Dreamed a Dream.” It has the half-life of radioactive waste. Everybody who has ever wished for a delay on their e-mail knows that, but teens are least likely to think about the long run. And they are often more trusting.
The vast majority of pictures are sent to romantic partners. A lot of what we are seeing are young people exploring trust and intimacy. As Boyd says, “If you look at the reasons why they share naked content, one is a form of flirting. Another is a way of brokering trust, a guy saying, ‘You don’t trust me? You won’t send me a naked picture?’” A brokered trust leads to broken trust when those photos are sent into the ether.
So what’s at stake is not pornography. “Almost all the cases,” Boyd says, “boil down to harassment and bullying.”
Let’s not forget the sexism in the sexting. It’s mostly girls’ pictures that get passed around. It’s often boyfriends — or ex-boyfriends — who hold the trump photo. It’s girls who pay a social price in humiliation. It’s girls who get tagged in the mean-girl lingo as “sluts.”
Eighteen-year-old Jessica Logan of Ohio committed suicide after her boyfriend put her naked photos out in public, but it was also girls who bullied and harassed her. The girl who trusted was socially ostracized more than the boy who violated that trust. Go figure.
If the sexting scandal has done anything, it’s gotten parents to take a peek at the pixels just as they’ve turned MySpace into OurSpace. We have to remove the felony label. But how do we raise the social penalty for being a certified creep?
While we figure this out, may I suggest a small app for every teen cell phone. It reads: Trust but verify. ..News Source.. by Ellen Goodman
April 20, 2009
VT- Lawmakers: Include Education in Sexting Bill
4-20-2009 Vermont:
Members of a Vermont House panel say legislation that would decriminalize teenage "sexting" should include education requirements.
Sexting is when people use their cell phones to send sexually explicit pictures and messages to each other. But representatives want to make some changes to the Senate-passed bill. They want to create a new offense that only applies to minors who send indecent photos but doesn't leave them with a criminal record.
And some members of the House Judiciary Committee say the bill should include a proposal that would call on the state sexual violence prevention task force to increase education about the dangers of sexting. ..News Source.. by WCAX-TV
