Different Media Takes on Pew "Sexting" Study

[iNow]

This might be a language barrier thing here, but I really feel like I'm repeating my points and either no one understands what I'm saying (which makes it my fault) or I have lost the ability to see clearly in this argument (which is, too, my fault).

 

Your points have been clear, Moo. Teach the kid how to deal with unpredictable situations in general instead of hiding them from one or two situations you regard as negative.

 

I face the same struggle often in threads where I post, especially since I have a habit of posting on such hot button issues like climate, politics, and religion. I think parenting is most certainly a hot button issue, especially when the decisions of a parent are being called into question (even if said questions are meant to be academic, not personal).

[DJBruce]

As an 18 year old high school boy I personally feel that they issue is blown completely out of proportion. I known it does happen, but at least in my experience sexting is fairly rare and isolated to a small group of people. At my school I would say the number of girls in my class I know who have sent pictures is limited mainly to one clique of about 10-15 girls, and this is out of a class of 550 students. I feel as if the issue is blown out of proportion by parents who refuse to admit the fact that their children are not going to remain abstinent forever.

 

The larger problem I have with sexting is when the children who do it begin to be punished by the schools, and or the courts for things such as the distribution of child pornography. There is a huge difference between voluntarily sexting in and kiddie porn, and for a high school students future to be ruined by considering them to be one in the same is wrong.

 

As a conclusion I am not saying that sexting is right, and am not advocating it in any way. However, in the day we live in were society often makes sexuality public I do not see this as that out of place.

[Moontanman]

Severian, I think we need to understand what you mean by pornographic images and what you are trying to protect your child from. Simple nudity? I have been a life long nudist, I know nudity is not harmful nor is it pornographic. Suggestive sexual images do not nesesarrily include nudity and are not illegal but to me are probalby more likely to result in some sort of harm that simple nudity. At the very least sexually suggestive images are more likey to give an individual a twisted idea of what sex is.

 

When I had small children I was more concerend with keeping them from being confortable with and being influenced by violence and gore type images. With a little effort one should be able to limit the violence and gore one would be exposed to, nudity and sexuality are not only impossible to avoid, it is not good to avoid them completly. With luck everyone will experince sexuality, violence and gore, if we are lucky will at least be rare events in our lives.

[bascule]

Well, haven't posted in this thread yet but...

 

"Sexting" in the age of MMS certainly makes me question the current child pornography laws. A 17 year old girl could take pictures of her boobs, text them to you (without your permission), and upon your cell phone automatically receiving the message, even if you don't view it, that makes you a sex offender in possession of child pornography.

 

The child pornography laws in the US are pretty f*cked up. Their hearts are in the right place but the laws do not account for the multitude of extenuating circumstances under which one can come to be in possession of child porn. It's clearly laws that were written before the age of instantaneous electronic communication which can't deal with the status quo.

[Moontanman]

The idea that nudity equals pornography is simply wrong, lots of none nude pictures are quite sexual but they are ok by law. I'm not sure what the answer is but current ideas seem wrong to me. Child beauty pageants are wrong to me but many people think dressing a 6 year old up like a hooker is ok.