Educate your tween about sexting....
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| Mon, 03-09-2009 - 3:18pm |
Taken from a blog I read:
The other day I had a chat with my teens about sexting. Sexting is the term used when teens send naked, or nearly naked, pictures of themselves to a significant other via picture messaging on their cell phones. My teens hadn’t heard of the term “sexting,” but they do know people who have sexted. In fact my 16-year-old sent a picture of himself in just his boxers to a “girlfriend” he had on MySpace a couple years ago.
We discussed how it may seem like a fun and harmless thing to do. Teens are trying to explore their sexuality. They are also trying to act grown up. And their hormones are raging. They are getting mixed messages from school, home and the media. Parents and school are trying to teach abstinence, but the media is forcing sexual messages down their throats. So sending naked pictures to a boyfriend/girlfriend seems like a very grown up and acceptable thing to do.
But sexting is often very harmful.
(1) Teens could be charged with possessing and/or sending child pornography…even though the picture is of themselves. If they are under 18 some law enforcement agencies are charging teens with child pornography in sexting cases. So teens need to understand the consequences and hopefully not get caught up in it.
(2) Teen relationships usually don’t last very long and often end badly. Sending a semi-naked photo of yourself to the current love of your life may be fun and playful today. But it could be an embarrassing mistake in a month. If the relationship ends badly may send out that photo just to embarrass you.
(3) The picture may accidentally get in to the wrong hands. I can’t tell you how many times I have accidentally texted somebody because I fat fingered the number. Or maybe the boyfriend wants to show off and sends the photo to just his best friend and tells him to keep it to himself, but the best friend doesn’t listen. Or maybe she leaves her phone unattended, somebody else goes snooping and send the photo out. Any number of things could happen that end up with your naked picture on the phone of everybody in the graduating class.
Teens think sexting is funny. And maybe even a little bit naughty. But it truly can ruin lives. A beautiful girl in Cincinnati took her own life because of the embarrassment and subsequent bullying after her nude photo spread throughout the school. What she thought was an innocent picture to her boyfriend turned out to be a very scary and heartbreaking experience for herself and her family. People she didn’t even know started harassing her at school, on the internet and even texting her messages on her cell phone. Don’t let this be your teen.

Its a great topic to remind parents these things before it gets out of hand.
Great post!
And if you think your daughter would never do this, I suggest you do the following:
1) Go to ivillage's "younger sister" site, www.gurl.com
2) Shout Out Boards
3) Advice: Relationships & Sex
4) Fooling Around Board
This will truly open your eyes as to what your daughters are up to.
I've never been so shocked in my life as when I read that board!
Good luck!