by Jennifer Powers

Created on: March 19, 2009   Last Updated: April 03, 2009

As tecnhology expands, new crimes are formed. With the phenomenon of texting on cell phones, a new trend called "sexting" unfolded. "Sexting" are messages or pictures of a sexually illicit nature that is sent via a text on cell phones. Reported as early as 2005 in Britain, this now has expanded worldwide and includes people of all age groups and backgrounds. While it might be considered immoral, a teenager also should not automatically face criminal child porn charges for "sexting." It astounds me that teenagers are being charged criminally for pornography because they texted pictures to each other of an illicit nature.

If any person is sending texts to anonymous people of a sexual nature, the behavior does need to be stopped. However, a child can go to juvenile court and be judged by his or her peers versus going to a criminal court. It is understandable that some people might construe the act of "sexting" as exposing oneself, which is why many are pushing for criminal charges. We all saw the case of the three teen girls and the three teen boys who were "sexting" each other and are being brought up on child pornography charges. All six of these teenagers were willingly sending them to each other as a way of flirting in their relationship so I believe the legal system has this particular case wrong.

In the case of condonement of "sexting," teenagers should be dealt with by their parents. A parent can take away the child's phone or disable the texting capability on the phone. They can require their teenager to seek psychiatric help. The behavior of "sexting" is very new and needs to be understood. The question to ask the teenager is why they are doing this. Many teenagers do it just because it is the "in" thing to do. They do not understand if found guilty in a criminal court, they will be required to register as a sex offender or life. That is a pretty harsh lesson to learn at such an early age!

Sex in juveniles is at an increase. Many children start having sex as early as age twelve and when asked why, they say it is because they wanted a boy to like them. 52% of teenaged girls who "sexted" were pressured by a boy they liked to do this. A parent should explain to their child that just like giving a boy sexual favors in the hopes they will like them is wrong, the act of "sexting" is the same context. If these problems are dealt with at home and discussed, there might be less "sexting" going on. But we do need to leave this topic out of criminal courts for the average "sexting" because it does not deserve a criminal count of child pornography. There are better ways for parents to make examples of their teenagers and teach them the difference between what is right and wrong versus a teenager paying for a mistake for the rest of their life!

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