People magazine featured a story on it in a recent issue. Tyra Banks devoted an entire show to the topic. Google the word “sexting” and the sheer volume of results might cause your head to spin.
Yes, it has become the topic du jour. And for good reason; the consequences of sexting on children can range from embarrassing to devastating. Recently,Anne Collier of NetFamilyNews spoke with us about sexting, its consequences and what you, as parents, can do.
First things first, Anne describes exactly what sexting entails: ““Sexting” usually means the illegal sharing of nude photos on cell phones, but the practice certainly isn’t limited to phones. It happened with email and on the Web before the term was even coined. Some kids have never even heard the term, so—when talking with them about it—it can help to use an alternative like “naked photo-sharing.’”
Where this practice can turn from uncomfortable and unfortunate to disturbing and scary is now there is a very real possibility that those involved in sexting could be charged with a crime. In fact, when posing the question of possible legal repercussions to Anne, she responded by saying that “yes, taking nude or sexually explicit photos of a minor—whether of oneself or anyone else—could be prosecuted as production of child pornography, as defined here by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.”
Legal ramifications aside, it’s necessary to understand how sexting could affect your children’s emotional well-being too. As Anne reminds us, “we need to help teens understand the psychological and social as well as legal harm they can do to themselves by engaging in sexting. We, and they, need to think about how any text or digital media they send can be copied and pasted almost anywhere by anyone, searchable by anyone pretty much forever. No matter who they intend a comment or photo to be for, they can’t control who else sees it. So they need to think about the potential embarrassing (or worse) impact that invisible audiences could have on them… That’s where grownups come in. We need to be in the loop to help keep the risks involved in their totally developmental risk-assessing at a minimum, and we need to be their back-up. That’s another reason why we can’t afford to overreact and shut down parent-child communication—because caring adults need to be in the mix.”
With legal, social, and emotional repercussions to think about in regards to your children, Anne suggested the following approach when looking to talk about such a complicated subject with your child, “The dinner table’s probably a good place to bring it up. You could say you’re curious about whether your children have ever heard the term. If so, do they know what it means? Do they know anyone who has had any naked photos of peers sent to them? You could have a printout of a news article about it with you, as a discussion point. Talk about what happened to the kids involved in the case and ask your children how they feel this could be avoided in their circles of friends.”
Learn more about Anne Collier’s advice on sexting here—and see “Tips to Prevent Sexting” at ConnectSafely.org, a project of Net Family News, Inc.
