The Dangers of Sexting
THE DANGERS OF SEXTING
Before we can get into the dangers of
Sexting, let‟s make sure you really know what this is. According to
Wikipedia, Sexting is , “the act of sending sexually explicit messages or photographs, primarily between mobile phones.” Most people aren‟t aware of the dangers really involved when sending a sexually explicit picture through their phone or the Internet. Over the past several years, the number of people Sexting has increased while the ages of those people creating the sexually explicit images and videos have decreased. Take a look at an example provided by PEOPLE magazine in 2009:
“On a typical day Ben Hunt and his best friend John Eicher, both 14, send each other about a dozen routine text messages.
But on Jan. 15, while at school,
Hunt sent Eicher something on his cell phone that suddenly put their futures in peril: a photo of a girl in their class exposing a breast. Eicher didn‟t see it as a big deal. „I really didn‟t think of deleting it,‟ says Eicher, an eighth grader who at the same time attended the Lawrence
School in Falmouth, Mass., with
Hunt. „I was, like, whatever.‟
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But school officials, alerted to the photo by two students sprang into action. They seized
Hunt‟s phone, and the police arrived. It turned out the photo had been taken by another make student of his 13-year-old girlfriend, who had allegedly posed for the shot. The fact that both boys had received the picture unsolicited, and that
Eicher had done nothing more than open the file, didn‟t matter.
To the shock of the boys and their families, authorities initially said they were weighing whether to charge the teens and four other boys who had received the photo with trafficking in child pornography, meaning they could face jail time and having to register as sex offenders.”
The dangers of Sexting aren‟t always well known and when you find out about them, it may be too late. That is why it
Before we can get into the dangers of
Sexting, let‟s make sure you really know what this is. According to
Wikipedia, Sexting is , “the act of sending sexually explicit messages or photographs, primarily between mobile phones.” Most people aren‟t aware of the dangers really involved when sending a sexually explicit picture through their phone or the Internet. Over the past several years, the number of people Sexting has increased while the ages of those people creating the sexually explicit images and videos have decreased. Take a look at an example provided by PEOPLE magazine in 2009:
“On a typical day Ben Hunt and his best friend John Eicher, both 14, send each other about a dozen routine text messages.
But on Jan. 15, while at school,
Hunt sent Eicher something on his cell phone that suddenly put their futures in peril: a photo of a girl in their class exposing a breast. Eicher didn‟t see it as a big deal. „I really didn‟t think of deleting it,‟ says Eicher, an eighth grader who at the same time attended the Lawrence
School in Falmouth, Mass., with
Hunt. „I was, like, whatever.‟
PAGE 1
But school officials, alerted to the photo by two students sprang into action. They seized
Hunt‟s phone, and the police arrived. It turned out the photo had been taken by another make student of his 13-year-old girlfriend, who had allegedly posed for the shot. The fact that both boys had received the picture unsolicited, and that
Eicher had done nothing more than open the file, didn‟t matter.
To the shock of the boys and their families, authorities initially said they were weighing whether to charge the teens and four other boys who had received the photo with trafficking in child pornography, meaning they could face jail time and having to register as sex offenders.”
The dangers of Sexting aren‟t always well known and when you find out about them, it may be too late. That is why it