RSSTeen Sexting Is Back in the News
Gene Lalor | June 29, 2009
The debate goes on: Do 20% of kids sext, or 25%? As if it matters whether one in five or one in four children engage in the activity which has become a buzzword in the teenage culture.
In fact, it may be one in three or an even greater phenomenon. Why adults would think teenagers would be upfront and totally honest about what they do with and on their cellphones is an even greater mystery.
Since my kids have long been out in the world as successful grown-ups, I can’t personally relate to the whole issue of adolescent sexting, which continues to be re-defined and refined by adults. Whether we elders even grasp the scope and import of this latest teen craze is questionable.
Back in the day, the worst my generation had to deal with were sex and drugs and rock and roll.
Sexting, however, has now become so ingrained in American life that one website, urbandictionary.com, has seen fit to officially lay out multiple definitions, as well as teen reactions to the adult world’s impertinence in seeking to define what is theirs, territory into which anyone over 20 or 25 should never venture nor critique.
That urban, and suburban and rural, dictionary posits this offering on sexting: “v: the act of text messaging someone in the hopes of having a sexual encounter with them later; initially casual, transitioning into highly suggestive and even sexually explicit.” 
Congenitally defensive teens offered various rebuttals and clarifications. They included: ”The term [sexting] is used by adults who are out of the loop, and not by the individuals actually sending the messages.” And, “like phone sex except throught texting.” And, “When a guy and a girl send dirty text messages back and forth to each other. Pictures may also be included, but only if you’re lucky:” http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sexting.
That’s all very enlightening but it sheds little light on sexting.
Not so lucky but quite enlightened was assistant principal at Virginia’s South Riding High School, Ting-Yi Oei. He was delegated by the principal to investigate “rumors that some students at the school were exchanging sexually explicit [sexted] photos of a teenage girl.”
He duly investigated, identified the culprit, and as instructed, captured the picture on his cell phone and laptop as evidence.
He was subsequently charged “with felony possession of child porn as well as with two misdemeanor counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor for instructing the male student to send him the photo.”
Assistant Principal Oei beat that rap, and the county, eventually, reimbursed him for the $167,000 in legal fees he incurred for doing his job as per his directions: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/06/sexting/
Whether he got any jollies from the picture in question, which showed only the torso of a female student “clad in underwear with her arms draped over her breasts,” was not determined. Mr. Oei could have seen more of torsos in Cosmo or in New York Times’ lingerie ads.
Some observers see nothing controversial or licentious about teenagers transmitting nude, semi-nude, or suggestive pictures or messages about themselves or others over cell phones. It’s a free country, right?
Such is the contention of one Toronto professor who is obviously aware of the unwritten publish or perish mandate for profs. They know that publishing something, anything, no matter how inane enhances their reps and their chances to secure tenure and Prof. Cumming knows full well where his collegiate bread is buttered.
“Professor Peter Cumming said the [sexual texting] practice was largely innocuous, essentially an update on ‘playing doctor or spin-the-bottle:’ ” http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/143500.
Now, I don’t know how old Cumming is or where he was raised but my experience with “playing doctor” and spinning bottles was pretty much confined to using pretend stethoscopes and having to kiss another blushing pre-teen. In any event, I moved on from playing a doctor around six and from spinning bottles around eleven.
That Yahoo article describes the good prof as “brave” for publicizing his opinions. I think the operative words should be either naive or just plain stupid, especially after noting Cumming’s commentary on the one “side effect” of sexting.
“Since they [sic] participants engage in the practice remotely instead of in physical contact, their actions are less likely to result in pregnancy or sexual [sic] transmitted diseases.”
Well, to quote Homer Simpson, “Duh!”
Numero uno, sexting is not only “less likely to result in pregnancy” or in contracting an std but it’s an anatomical and biological impossibility via a phone.
Second, I hope to God that Professor Cumming is either gay or never has any daughters if he’s straight.
I’m betting on gay.
A far more relevant view of the subject of sexting is provided in a Wall Street Journal blog, “Why Do Teens Engage in ‘Sexting?’ “ The female writer dismisses the notion that sexting is “today’s version of streaking, skinny-dipping and mooning – pranks used by previous generations to get attention or have fun.”
Streaking, skinny-dipping, and mooning rarely resulted in serious criminal charges; some sexters have been indicted as child pornographers for sexting their own pictures. At least one Midwest teen, Jessica Logan, 
committed suicide after her ex-boyfriend circulated her photos.
See “Teen Texting, Sexting, and Suicide,” http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=924.
Sue Shellenbarger cites one study as providing a wider context, a “symptom of a sexual revolution” in which, “Sexting is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s a reflection of casual sex, changes in the way they look at their bodies, . . . sexuality is part of the [hooking up] culture:” http://blogs.wsj.com/juggle/2009/06/15/why-do-teens-engage-in-sexting/.
Based on various news stories, the idea that a sexual revolution is underway in the next generation seems logical although only history will bear that out. Based on the possible repercussions from sexting, it’s clearly not the equivalent of other high school, and junior high, hijinx.
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