All Adults Need to be Aware of Sexting

Sending pictures of a sexual nature between cell phones or the Internet is often done between students. About 20 percent of teens admit to sexting, according to a nationwide survey by the National Campaign to Support Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

Students need to know that this goes beyond a pornographic problem; there is a bullying aspect to sexting. As many of you have heard, a Cincinnati girl committed suicide after photos she sent to a boyfriend were sent to hundreds of people. This girl received harassing messages through her MySpace and Facebook accounts, and in person.

With regard to pornography, there has been attempts to prosecute girls for sexting. The threatening charges were against some girls with hopes of felonies of child pornography for sending partially-nude pictures of themselves to boys. Students need to know the possible legal implications they could possibly face for doing this.

Some school districts are finding a need to suspend both the students who are nude to semi-nude on cell phones and the students who are in possession of these photos. Schools have to be careful in their handling of these issues because teachers, principals and administrators find themselve in possession of the pictures when they confiscate them. Recently, an assistant principal in another state was charged with child pornography after investigating a sexting case at his school; the principal was obviously in possession of the photos after confiscating them.

School districts need to consider a variety of actions around raising awareness of and increasing education about sexting. Schools, community organizations, law enforcement and public officials need to partner to provide trainings on bullying, cyberbullying and computer/internet safety, including sexting and safety on social networking sites. Any education around sexting should include the whole community. This means including students, board members and staff as well as parents and community members. District 742 recognizes the need for computer/internet/technology safety and discussions around the need for more awareness and training will be discussed soon.

My hope is that parents are talking to their children about this. It's my plea that parents have these discussions as soon as cell phones, digital cameras and the internet are allowed at home. After all, 20% and growing is certainly a concerning statistic.