Sexting, a result of morons.

Well you might not have been aware but there's a problem occurring everyday with more teenagers than you'd expect. Many parents aren't even aware of the situation until it's out of hand. The problem I am talking about is teens taking texting out of hand, sending naked photographs. Not to mention that the average age of this particular crime seems to keep getting younger, it's an issue. It’s a hot topic in both high schools and middle schools. Clearly it isn't something you should do, yet people seem to keep doing it every day, regardless of the media. Not only can you get in trouble, but both sides can get felonies. If the teenager is under age they'll receive a pornography charge for taking a picture and sending it and whoever they find on the other end of the text will get a child pornography charge. This, if you ask me, is entirely fair since it shouldn’t be happening in the first place. But it's not perfect, I'm sure many people have received naked pictures that they really didn't want. It could result in harsh charges for the receiver of such texts and they can't even control the content they're receiving, so in turn they are deemed guilty as soon as the "sex text" is sent to them, regardless of if they even wanted it in the first place or if they even expected it. I'd like to think it's a result of peer pressure and not teens really wanting to send naked pictures of themselves. Then again we are living in the twenty-first century and times seem to just keep getting crazier. But I don't think that they are informing teens as to just how serious this can be, as some teens have been charged with serious felonies and received many years in prison, which is pretty harsh but you shouldn't send your pictures over anything if you're naked. What is scary is that it's such a high number of teens who participate in such acts, causing hysteria among parents; which now results in everyday lectures for many on what not to do on texts messages. A nationwide survey by the National Campaign to Support Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy says roughly 25% of teens admitted to participating in sexting. That is scary that a fourth of the high school population could be doing this, but I like to think statistics can be wrong. But people are going to do what they want to do, and unlike myself and many others who wouldn't send a naked picture, there's just as much who are willing too. So if you don't want your teens to do such things you need to have a talk with them and make them aware of the severity of it all! If anything, a possible option is that cell phone companies can register ages per cell phone and put an age lock of eighteen and older only on picture SMS, this way you have to be an adult in order to text pictures. But I doubt they'll do that, since those cellular companies just want cash usually. I don't think anything will be happening anytime soon though. They should try and lessen the law to a lighter sentence for people under eighteen since many of these kids now face years of jail time, which is cruel for the ones who've had a clear record and didn't really think about it. It's obvious that kids will be kids, but at the same time there should be some repercussions for doing this, a few weeks in juvie for example. They should really concentrate on the real freaks out there looking to abduct children and whatnot, the people with child pornography up the yang on their computers...not some teenagers who were stupid for just one instance. Now, the kids who spread them around to the entire school should be charged too but it's nearly impossible to find the source half the time when it has escalated to the point of some teen bringing it up. It can ruin somebody’s life and reputation and has even results in many suicides. Many companies are fortunately complying with helping to stop sexting; such as Twitter, Facebook, and even MySpace. All of which are very popular among teens, so at least they're trying to help. The main thing you should take into consideration is if your teen(s) possibly do this, and if they do, is it really with someone they trust? It can result in a permanent sex offender charge. Many of the teens convicted said they weren't aware of how bad it really was to send nude photos. You need to tell your teens that if they receive a nude photo they should delete it immediately and not inform anyone about it. If the person who sent it is a close friend or whatever, inform them of sexting and how illegal it is. If the photos keep coming even after requesting the person to stop, that is when you should approach going to tell an officer of the law. Now, with this being such a big issue, authorities may be too occupied to even concentrate on real bad sexual encounters that teens are having every day. Not to mention all of the other things that can occur in a teen’s life in this age, we really need to find a way to resolve this. But I guess we’ll have to see. Maybe it’ll be dropped because of constitutional rights, or it’ll die with time…who knows? Also, I'm curious who picked the fourth grader to decide what to call these types of messages…I mean seriously, sexting? Who pays these guys?!