Be Responsible or Let your Kid Ruin Their Life – Sexting is a Potential Sex Crime
A recent study from The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy found that about 20% of teens (ages 13-19) and an incredible 33% of young adults (ages 20-26) have shared nude or semi-nude images of themselves either via mobile phone text messaging or by posting on the internet. Teenage girls are slightly more likely to do this than boys and a very distressing 11% of the young teen girls (ages 13-16) admitted to sending suggestive photos of themselves.
Recent studies from The Nielsen Company and the Pew Research Center point to a handful of factors that should be causing concern for parents and guardians. These problems are also an opportunity for software solutions companies. There is growth in the number of teenagers that own cellular phones, the amount of texting they do, and more troubling the number of young people that are occupied with “sexting” – the sending of potentially illegal images or text messages from mobile phones.
What’s the fuss? Just innocent fun, youth exploring their new sexuality?
Think again. Sending a sexually explicit photo of a child is a sex crime. Young people are being arrested, convicted and having to register as sex offenders. They are risking more than emotional distress and humiliation, charges of sexual misconduct can result in getting suspended and expelled from school, losing scholarships, and losing jobs. A felony conviction may also affect future employment opportunities, such as those offered in law enforcement and other high-security clearance positions. In other words, they’re ruining their lives over a little “innocent” fun.
There isn’t anything innocent about it. {Keep in mind|Consider} that if a young teen sends a sexting photo of themselves – they could be breaking child pornography statues in most states.
Getting convicted in criminal court for “sexting” can easily have other serious consequences. In addition to the potential jail sentence and/or fine levied by a judge, registration may be stipulated with the Sex Offender Registration Board for the next 20 years. Additionally, the felony court may order the surrender and destruction of the computer or digital devices used.
As sending text messages from mobile phones has become a focus in teenager social life, parents, educators and advocates have grown increasingly troubled about the role of cell phones in the sexual lives of youths. A recent research study from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project (pewinternet.org/topics/Teens.aspx) concluded that 4% of mobile phone owning young people ages 12-17 say they have sent sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude images or videos of themselves to someone else via text messaging. This practice is commonly referred to “sexting” in today’s slang. Furthermore, 15% say they have received these kinds of images images of someone they actually know by way of text message.
According to a study from market researchers The Nielsen Company (blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/under-aged-texting-usage-and-actual-cost/) American young people send an undreamed of average of 10 text messages per hour that they are not in school or sleeping – and most likely a lot during class too!
By evaluating over than forty thousand monthly US mobile phone bills, Nielsen found that American teenagers sent an average of an incredible 3,146 text messages every month during Q3 2009.
Their younger counterparts – tweenagers – ages 9-12 years old sent about 1,100 texts each month. That equates to four per hour they were in school or not sleeping. To put that in perspective, the average number of monthly texts sent by all cell phone users combined was just slightly above five hundred. In the fourth quarter 2009, tweenage users ages 9-12 years old increased SMS usage by 8% just about doubling the quantity of text messages.
Pew Research points out that sending provocative images happens most often under one of three different scenarios: The first, exchanges of images just between two romantic partners;
the next, lists exchanges between partners that are then shared with other people; followed by, exchanges between people who are not yet in a relationship, but with one person hoping there will be one hopes to be}.
Teens were interviewed and gave Amanda Lenhart, Senior Research Specialist and author of the report a variety of reasons surrounding the motivation to participate in sexting. These included the researcher’s interpretation that “…sexually suggestive images had become a form of relationship currency,”; that sexting images “… are shared as a part of or instead of sexual activity,” and that SMS text message sexting is a way of starting or maintaining a relationship. Sensitive pictures are also passed along to friends “… for their entertainment value, as a joke, or for fun.”
Teens also described to researchers the peer pressure to share sexual images. Not surprisingly the report also reveals that teenagers that are intensive users of mobile phones are more likely to receive sexually suggestive images. For these teenagers, the phone has become such an important conduit for communication and content of all kinds that turning it off is nearly unthinkable.
The combination of risk-taking and sexual exploration during the teen years mixed with routine connection via cell phones and other mobile devices “…creates a ‘perfect storm’ for sexting,” said Pew’s Amanda Lenhart. “Teenagers have always grappled with issues around sex and relationships, but their coming-of-age mistakes and transgressions have never been so easily transmitted and archived for others to see.”
Despite some indications that per user usage has peaked, Nielsen estimates that overall text messaging usage will grow as the avid user population ages and entices the older generations to text with them in order to keep in contact with them. Current SMS users are expected to continue to text extensively and as tweenagers age they will increase usage. The average number of text messages per user has increased every year, and there is room for growth.
If you’ve got teens then you’re probably not surprised by the usage numbers. But in all liklihood you’re also either in denial that your teens are involved in sexting, or you’re actively seeking solutions to the problem. In all probability most parents can’t believe their kids are involved with sexting, or they are looking for ways to find out. While parents may get angry that all the texts their teens and tweens are sending are going to break the bank, Nielsen analysis indicates the average cost of a single text message is just one cent. The real issue concerning parents is not so much how often teens use their phones but has more to do with how they use their phones, and when they are texting.
Sexting is an extremely complex issue. As a result, it is very hard to provide guidance on how best to handle these situations. The National Center For Missing & Exploited Children policy talks about that there are four roles to every sexting case: the person seen in the picture, someone who took the photo, the distributor(s) of the photo, and the recipient(s) of the photo. In some cases one person may assume more than one of these roles (e.g., a youth takes a sexually explicit photo, of herself and sends it to a friend). In other situations, multiple people may take on a single role (e.g., a child takes a sexually explicit picture of himself and sends it to a classmate who then forwards the photo to the entire high school senior class). It is important to think about the intent and motivation of each of the parties in every situation.
The National Center For Missing & Exploited Children advocates parents monitor cell phone use. A workable technological solution available for parents and guardians to discover what teenagers are doing~what’s going on with their children} is cell phone technology.
Sexting can be against the law. Parents are responsible to stop it. Especially when low cost solutions can be ordered over the internet. A really great software package that includes remote control of handset settings, and combines Mobile Phone Tracking with SMS text message, Call Log, MMS multi-media message monitoring, and a web account for storage and review is PhoneBeagle.
Follow this link if you are interested in Cell Phone Monitoring Software that is compatible with BlackBerry and Android Smartphones,. Visit this link for more information regarding the latest software for
Parental Monitoring of Mobile Phones .
