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Start Talking!
Know! Your
Child's Risk for Sexting
6/15/2017
As any parent or caregiver raising teenagers knows, smartphones play a
leading role in their daily lives. While social media, apps and
messaging provide a fun and highly accessible path to connect and share
with friends, such outlets also allow youth to connect with those they
should not be connecting with and share things they should not be
sharing. We’re talking SEXTING - defined as sending sexually explicit
messages, photos or videos via cell phone or other electronic devices.
Regardless of where you live or where your teens go to school, you can
bet “sexting” is taking place among their peers. While we do not want
to believe our children would ever make such a bad judgment call, it is
important to know that 39 percent of teens report having sent sexually
suggestive messages by way of text, email or instant messaging and 20
percent say they have sent nude or semi-nude photos or videos of
themselves.
Through countless stories in the media, we see that any adolescent with
access to a cell phone or other electronic device is at-risk for
getting involved in the sending, receiving and/or forwarding of
inappropriate messages or images – which can lead to a number of
negative legal, social, safety and health consequences. A study
published in the Journal of Adolescent Health found that sexting also
has links to substance abuse and risky sexual behavior among youth.
So what is it that causes a teen to engage in such activity and what
can we do, as parents, to prevent or stop our child from partaking in
any way, shape or form?
According to a compilation of studies shared by GuardChild.com, the
most common reasons teen give for sexting include: to be fun and
flirtatious; sent as a “present” to a boyfriend; pressure from a guy or
girl; sent in response to receiving a sext; sent as a joke; and some
report sending it to “feel sexy.”
In other words, teens are generally sexting for approval and
acceptance. But this type of behavior can obviously backfire. The girl
who sent a “private” photo to her now ex-boyfriend ends up being seen
by all of his and her peers - to humiliate her for breaking up with
him. The inappropriate picture sent out as a joke gets into the hands
of the school principal - not so funny now. The image sent by a girl
trying to attract a certain boy somehow lands on a pornographic website
- putting not only this young lady’s reputation, but safety at risk.
Once sent, there is no turning back. And what may have been intended
for one person to see can end up on the screens of everyone at school
and elsewhere. For many young people, sexting becomes their social
death sentence. In numerous instances, these adolescents become targets
of shame and ridicule among their peers – some to the point of becoming
suicidal (as again we’ve seen far too often in the media).
How many of us have talked to our children about sexting beyond saying,
“You better never…”? If that’s as far as you’ve gotten, you’re not
alone. But the conversation must go deeper. In a future Know! tip, we
will give suggestions on how to talk to your pre-teens and teens about
this subject and provide content on what those conversations should
include.
Learn how to get the drug prevention conversation started at
StartTalking.Ohio.Gov.
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