Think again.
Look at these statistics, from a public survey by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy , about young people who have electronically sent, or posted online, nude or semi-nude pictures or video of themselves:
*20 percent of teens aged 13-19
- --22 percent of teen girls
- --18 percent of teen boys
The percentages are higher for teens who have sent or posted sexually suggestive messages:
- 39% of all teens
- 37% of teen girls
- 40% of teen boys
- 48% of teens say they have received such messages
This is being seen as such a problem that the Houston school district just banned sexting on campuses. A lawyer for the system said such behavior doesn’t belong in school.
It is, of course, not likely that a girl will send nude pictures of herself to the love of her life during Algebra 2.
And schools could ban cell phones in the classroom. Any parent who must reach a child during school hours could do what they used to do before cell phones--use a land line and call the office. Teachers, too, can confiscate any phones they do see.
But schools aren't the real location of concern here--and they can't fix the problem. This is work for parents.
Even if you can’t link a camera-equipped phones directly to Facebook or My Space, your kids can do it in a flash. Increasingly significant technology is allowing kids to do things they shouldn’t well before they have the judgment to see the long-term consequences. And they are real. My husband was going to hire an attorney at his law firm--until he looked the young man up on the Internet and found pictures posted exhibiting drunken and otherwise unfortunate behavior.
I talked to Eyal Yechezkell, chief executive office of a New York-based online and text message-based survey company called Predicto Mobile, about what parents can and should do to address this growing problem.
Here is his advice about what you can do to try to curb activity that could come back to haunt your kids:
a) “The first thing parents have to do is really have the talk,” Yechezkell said. “It’s about communication. You have to sit down with your kids and explain how dangerous it is sending these images.
Tell them, ‘If it isn’t good enough to send to grandma, don’t send it. Think before you type. Think before you send.’ ”
Part of the discussion should be about relationships and trust.
Inappropriate pictures are often sent by boys or girls who think that their partners are going to be in love with them forever. A lot of the time, of course, the recipient winds up sharing he pictures with their friends and they share it with their friends and....
b) Don’t give your kids texting capability on their phones if they can’t handle it properly. You pay the bills, so you set the limits. The world functioned well enough before we were able to do this and it can without your kids texting at will.
c) Check your phone bills and see when your child is texting. An employee of Yechezkell’s discovered that her child was sending dozens of texts, under the covers, at night when the mom thought the kid was asleep.
d) Get a Facebook page and monitor what your kids are doing. Don’t let them tell you that you are intruding into their private lives. Nothing on the Internet is private.
If you teach your child one thing today, let it be that. ( washingtonpost.com )
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