Sexting

The discussion of sexting came up during a presentation and whether or not it should be considered a crime if a teenager sends picture of him or herself to another person. Technically, it is distribution of child pornography but no one took advantage of this person, if he or she distributed them themselves. The child pornography laws are meant to protect children, not necessarily punish them for sending a sext or posting an inappropriate picture of themselves online. Young kids don’t realize how serious this is or how far these pictures can travel. For some reason, mostly girls, don’t realize that these pictures can’t be contained and even though several cases of this nature are becoming more public, this offense doesn’t seem to be slowing down.

I think one of the reasons girls do this is obviously, low self-esteem. People can blame the media if they want, and I am sure they hold some part, but I also blame the parents. It is the job of a parent, not the media to raise these children. Parents, especially mothers, need to instill self-confidence in these girls. Mothers always tell daughters what not to do, but they rarely tell them what to do. I don’t know think mothers spend enough time telling girls to love themselves. Girls don’t need to impress anyone but themselves, and NEVER need to impress a boy. Another problem with the child pornography laws is that men are writing them and adult men don’t know how to deal with young girls and sex, especially girls their daughters’ age. Their only goal is to stop it but not the reason for it.