Sexting (v) - v: the act of text messaging someone in the hopes of having a sexual encounter with them later; initially casual, transitioning into highly suggestive and even sexually explicit.
There’s been a LOT of media coverage surrounding this new “trend.” Much of it was spurred by the case of a few cheerleaders who took naked photos of themselves with their cameraphones and sent them to their boyfriends. The girls were kicked out of school, prompting their parents to sue.
Sexting (short for “sex text messaging”) even made USA Today with the headline “Flirting goes high-tech with racy photos shared on cellphones, Web.” Quoted in the article was a new study from Cosmogirl and the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy:
About a third of young adults 20-26 and 20% of teens say they’ve sent or posted naked or semi-naked photos or videos of themselves, mostly to be “fun or flirtatious,” a survey finds.
A third of teen boys and 40% of young men say they’ve seen nude or semi-nude images sent to someone else; about a quarter of teen girls and young adult women have. And 39% of teens and 59% of those ages 20-26 say they’ve sent suggestive text messages.
Reading through all these articles, you’d think every kid was doing it. 20% is still significant, but is this an epidemic? The behavior is certainly alarming parents and newscasters, prompting them to fret about the dangers of texting. “What is going on? Is there no just shame anymore with a lot of our young girls?”
Well, first lets look at the why. These girls have grown up on-screen, be it in home movies or MySpace profiles. Their lives are lived in the story–the telling and the showing. They also think that their value lies in their bodies. This is part of pop culture. Heck, it’s almost an honor for actresses to pose for Maxim, Playboy and the like. But also keep in mind that girls probably don’t intend for these to go public (though they will, of course…) Girls are feeling pressure to compete with online porn, to make the real thing as enticing as the digital.
Some are calling for the ban of the cameraphone. According to Nielsen Mobile, about 80% of teens 13-17 and 93% of those 18-24 use cellphones and most of these have built-in cameras. So should parents pluck them form their kids hands? Is that the answer? Maybe we should ask John Lithgow in Footloose.
The truth is that porn spurs technology. Sex is an early adopter and a prime motivator. You can see this in the evolution of books, magazines, video, websites, 3D, virtual reality, sensory technology…. Not to say that we should encourage porn among teens, just that it’s not freakish. It’s pretty natural. And Puritan fear should not impede progress. How about education as a solution? What about media literacy programs in schools and at home? Sure, we can ring the alarm, but let the cellphone ring as well!
