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... ... middle of paper ... ...6030/ns/today-parenting_and_family/t/her-teen-committed-suicide-over-sexting/#.U3ikE_mSySq) Cohen, S 2011, Folk Devils and Moral Panics, Routledge, retrieved on 16th May 2014 (http://books.google.com.au/books?id=FA6tAgAAQBAJ&printsec=copyright#v=onepage&q&f=false) Crespi, T, Segool, N 2013, ‘Sexting at Sixteen: Reflections on Legal and Professional Issues’, The Online Journal of Counseling and Education, vol 4, no.2, retrieved May 14th 2014 (http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy-m.deakin.edu.au/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=476af979-0ab3-460f-89d2-2d136ee95e4c%40sessionmgr115&hid=115) Germov, Poole, 2011, Public Sociology – An introduction to Australian society, 2nd edn, Allen & Unwin, Australia Meyer, E 2009, ‘Sexting’ and Suicide, Psychology Today, retrieved 15th May 2014 (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/gender-and-schooling/200912/sexting-and-suicide
Greig, A. & F. Lewins & K. White (2003), Inequality in Australia, New York: Cambridge University Press.
...n credit cards with men’s names. What is even more important is the reach of porn’s influence. The emerging generation that has grown up in the Internet age and most likely porn has been this generation’s first sexual experience. In most cases the habit sticks, about 70% of 18-24-year-olds visit porn sites each month. Porn has both massive ubiquity and ease of access; the average age when hardcore porn is first viewed is now only eight years old (Viewpoint , 2012). Children are necessarily looking for it but, these images and videos are shared on phones, advertise in magazines and found by innocent Googling. With porn so omnipresent and sex education budgets being slashed across Europe and the United States, porn has become de faco sex education (Viewpoint , 2012). As a result, a whole generation of kids is growing up with a distorted impression of human sexuality.
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).
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
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].
Internet users at the ages of 12 to 13 years generally understand the social complexities of the internet at the same levels as adults. As they get older and gain experience online, they engage in more complexes and interactive internet use puts them at greater risk than younger, less experienced youth who use the Internet in simpler, less interactive ways ((Livingstone & Sonia,2006). Among youth ages 12- to 17-years-old, it was those ages 15 to 17 that were most prone to take risks involving privacy and contact with unknown people. On the other hand, the target who are the most vulnerable to online victimization that have histories of sexual abuse, sexual orientation concerns, and patterns of risk taking off- and online have minor risk in involved again because of the experienced (Jones & Jemmot, 2009) .
Due to the rising number of teens who do engage in sexting, studies have been done to discover when the correlation is, if any, between sexting and engaging in sexual activity.
Cell phones are common objects found in the pockets and bags of almost everyone one in the world. Recently, cell phones have been getting teens and adults into trouble. Most individuals send and receive text messages. The newest trend among some individuals is “sex-texting” or “sexting.” Sexting is a dangerous yet contagious phenomenon contaminating the lives of teens and adults all over the country, if not the world. This phenomenon can have serious consequences. Even after surveying 1300 teenagers, one in five say they’ve sexted, although they know that it could be a crime (Feyerick and Steffen). Sexting is a growing epidemic and the only way to prohibit its growth is to develop close relationships with the kids of today’s society.
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.
Jureidini, R. & Poole, M. Sociology: Australian Connections, Third Edition, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2003.
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
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 .