Over the last few years, there has been a lot of discussion and debate over the topic of sexting. It has become a widespread phenomenon, the number of teenage girls and boys, men and women who participate are rapidly increasing, and with this too comes the rise of moral panic within societies. Individuals within the communities are becoming more and more fearful, afraid and shocked at this new form of youth culture hysteria. Although young people ‘expressing’ their sexuality has become much more open and free as of the last decade or so, the real uproar of panic is due to the risks they involving themselves in as well as the damage and harm they are inflicting on themselves, whether they know it or not.
Sexting is ‘the act of sending, receiving, or retaining sexually explicit text messages, pictures, or video using cellular phones’, ( Crespi, Segool, 2013). It is viewed that those who participate in sexting are part of a deviant subculture. As technology has further advanced over the years, mobile phones in particular have the ability to record and send photos and videos and with this also comes the increase in sending explicit and suggestive material, mainly among teens. The content being sent can be anything from texts, semi nudity and even sexual picture and videos. From one generation to the next, teenagers and adults have already been exchanging sexually explicit messages and images, so sexting shouldn’t come as a huge shock. However one of the real concerns about sexting is how easily these images and videos can be spread and shared among large groups of people. Pictures or videos thought to be shared privately among people, can quickly become viral and can be seen by everyone and anyone. A prime example of this can be seen...
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In today’s American society, almost everyone, even children as young as six, owns a cell phone with a camera. Although convenient, camera phones also open the door to massive problems concerning child pornography that stem from sexting, or sending nude or lascivious photos. According to a 2010 Federal Bureau of Investigation survey1 of 4,400 middle and high school students, “approximately eight percent of students reported that they had sent a sext of themselves to others while thirteen percent said they had received a sext.” The main problem with sexting, aside from being child pornography if it is a picture of minor, is the ease of dissemination of the sext to other contacts or even the Internet. The United States alone has seen several students commit suicide after a sext intended for one person’s eyes goes viral or is sent to the entire high school. Such was the case of Ohio high school student, Jesse Logan, who sent nude photos to her boyfriend who then sent them to other students who harassed her until she committed suicide.2
Sexting is a current phenomenon, the word sexting is a blend of the two words sex and text. The subject of this research article is important because it can help researchers and people in general to better understand the meaning and different interpretations of the word sexting and evaluate the positive and negative consequences of sexting. It is also important to review why people sext. As personality traits are analyzed, activity between the sender or receiver of the sexting will also observable, and the literature will determine if the sender or receiver is the vulnerable participant. Vulnerabilities are expressions of personality traits. Through psychology people can be prevented from acquiring maladaptive patterns of behaviors, good examples of these are addictive behaviors are antisocial behavior patterns (Delevi & Weisskirch, 2013).
Ryan, G., Leversee, T. and Lane, S. 2014. Juvenile Sexual Offending: Causes, Consequences, and Correction. [online] Available at: http://books.google.ca/books?isbn=0470646942 [Accessed: 14 Mar 2014].
Schools and programs can have assemblies and discuss the intent of people who sext and the consequences of sexting, whether they are minor or severe. The severe consequences of sexting or posting sexually explicit photos online can be psychologically damaging (ex. emotional trauma to the subject of the photo), especially if the distribution of the photo ends up in the wrong hands, or to an unintended audience. It is known that there is a "social disapproval over sexting, which causes many teens to not report such incidents (Terry, 2013, p. 153). Therefore we cannot be sure of how widespread the act of sexting is, in an accurate manner. Findings vary among researchers regarding the actual frequency of sexting as can be seen in numerous
Jesse Logan was a girl who had just graduated from high school when she was humiliated by her ex-boyfriend to an unforgivable state. She sent a fully frontal nude photograph of herself to her then-boyfriend, which is now known as sexting. After their breakup, the ex-boyfriend forwarded Jesse's sext to their entire school, causing her embarrassment and humiliation. She then did an interview with the Today Show stating "I just want to make sure no one else will have to go through this again." Two months later she was found in her bedroom. She hanged herself. As a nation, how is it going to be possible to implement a policy that will work sufficiently? I believe that through annual, educational assemblies in elementary schools for grades four through six, junior high schools for grades seven through nine, and high schools for grades ten through twelve, there will be a recognition by the student body of what exactly privacy is, what sexting is, and how it can harm futures with the click of a "send" button. Understanding exactly what sexting is will be crucial for the students. This will be the most applicable and effective way to cut back on the sexting numbers in the United States.
It’s in the news, its on social media, and its on cell phones. “Sexting” is just one way that many people engage in sexual activity. Sexting is sending and/or receiving sexually explicit photos through messages on their cell phone or through social media. Many Americans today, especially teenagers, are familiar with sexting, however, may not be familiar with the psychology behind sexting; why do we want to do it, what does it makes us feel, and what are the consequences of sexting. Anywhere from 20 to 30 percent of American teenagers actively engage in sexting today.
...lationships with teens will help thwart these severe effects from befalling on the youth of today’s society. Sexting can cause trouble, and, if caught, can hold grim outcomes. If we really want this madness to come to an end, parents must create close relationships with their children.
There are many risk factors when it comes to sexting. Before one can understand these factors, they first have to know what sexting is. Sexting: the sending of sexually explicit photos, images, text messages or emails by using a cell phone or other mobile device. Sexting is considered a crime and can be followed with legal action. No matter what age one may involve themselves in this crime, they can still be arrested and filed as a registered sex offender for the rest of their lives or until they are the age of 18. The reason why many people get involved in sexting is due to peer pressure. Sex-tortion is when someone intimidates someone else or blackmails them into sending explicit photos, videos, or messages.
The Internet is a global network of vast information. With a few clicks, an individual can have access to up to 200 million web-sites filled with educational and recreational information. The Internet is not regulated in anyway (Carnegie Library 1). It is accessible throughout the entire world from the North to the South, to the early morning sunrise and dark sunsets. Different ethnicity and backgrounds come together linked upon this network resembling a connection of one body in unity. Sadly, issues arise creating concern for users, focusing particularly on minors. Pornography is one of the inappropriate materials on the Internet for minors. This material is harmful to young impressionable minds. Pornography is tearing and disintegrating the foundations of our society can be described as follows, "what was available to a small number of people willing to drive to the bad side of town can now be viewed at any time in the privacy of one"s home" (Anderson 2). In order to understand how to aid in the critical decision of whether or not to censor child pornography, an individual has to first clearly understand a few terms. These terms will aid in a clear understanding throughout the case study.
Although sexting can be viewed as a serious offence, many young people still perform the act. There are many reasons a...
However the faulty policies that are made by the sites are potentially putting users at a high risk which consequently leads to the affection of their social impressions. Evidently, Facebook likely is not the most appropriate entity to be the arbiter of whether or not academic researchers should obtain consent from individuals to collect their information (Solberg, 2014, p. 800). The terms and condition legalities notwithstanding, users can and should question the terms and conditions of the platforms on which they contribute content, conduct exchanges, socialize, communicate, and otherwise interact. Understanding the conditions of use on these sites allows users to better assess, and advocate for, the levels of influence and control they consider acceptable on the sites they use (Stein, 2013, p. 368). Some of the consequences of sexting are prioritizing humiliation as ‘the worst’ consequence for girls, and criminalization as the most important consequence facing boys (Karaian, 2014, p. 288). As a whole, social media are inevitable in terms of a daily entertainment for teenagers however they usually become victims as of misunderstanding certain terms and conditions offered by the sites; and they might become sexually abusive by offending a victim through sexting (does not matter which gender; heterosexual or
“The media may be especially important for young people as they are developing their own sexual beliefs and patterns of behavior and as parents and schools remain reluctant to discuss sexual topics (p.26)”.
In recent years, pornography has established itself as perhaps the most controversial topic arising out of the use of the Internet. The easy availability of this type of sexually explicit material has caused a panic among government officials, family groups, religious groups and law enforcement bodies and this panic has been perpetuated in the media.
The Internet came with an abundant amount of benefits for our civilization as a whole. People became more connected and had the ability to access information they would have otherwise never seen. Yet, there is another side to this connectivity a much more malicious side: pornography. Pornography, typically abbreviated as porn, dominates the internet- as many as 12% of all websites are pornographic and the industry is worth nearly $97 billion . With regards to acceptance, some supported pornographic consumption while others rejected it due to religious or moral beliefs. Porn was considered as something that was not very dangerous. This has all changed, however, within the last decade as piles of research highlights the crude effects of pornography, not just on adults, but also adolescents. Porn harms adolescents through obscenity and early exposure to sexual images, this in turn promotes less progressive gender roles and sexual behavior .