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OMG…
DYK about Sexting???
Young people today are sending out and
receiving text
messages like crazy. But a new trend is
happening, which though it doesn’t necessarily surprise me, it astounds me, and it’s called SEXTING,
and teens are in the middle of it! What
is sexting? It’s where people send
pictures from their cell phones, like texting. Only
in these pictures, the senders (girls more often than
guys) are
scantily dressed, (and sometimes without clothes at all,) and the
pictures are
being sent to boyfriends and girlfriends. It
doesn’t take a genius to know that this is
morally wrong, but the
“wrongness” goes deeper than most people think. While initially it may seem like just a little
fun between
a girlfriend
and boyfriend, one big problem is that the pictures often don’t
only go to the
person they are sent to. They often get
shared with friends, and eventually, like any good secret, they get
shared with
anyone on virtual networks, getting sent to dozens, or hundreds of
people,
making the mistake an even bigger one. One
would think that these kids, who are tech savvy enough
to do all
this, would realize that once something is out on the airwaves or the
Internet,
you can’t call it back! It’s
out there
for years and years, and you’ll never be able to control who sees
it.
So now think about what happens years down
the road, when
that girl is having a family, or looking for a job, and someone
uncovers those
pictures. How does she explain that to
people? How does a young man explain to
his parents about having a picture on his phone when they find it? Because you KNOW someone’s parents are
going
to see it somehow eventually and they are going to recognize the person! That ought to be a fun discussion when their
parents get a call from a friend saying they just saw provocative or
nude
pictures of their child on someone’s phone or e-mail. Is there no fear of embarrassment [or
punishment] these days?
Sexting is a very disturbing trend about
which teens need
to understand the risks, and embarrassment and humiliation are just the
start. While it might make them popular
in the short run, they will almost always be perceived as less of a
person
because of it, many times even by the person they sent it to in the
first
place. Teens who may engage in this
absurd activity may get
“praise” and
encouragement from peers for being so bold or “cool,” but
it’s really a self-serving praise, because they
hope
to see more pictures, or just more… Remember, it’s not
real admiration, and
they certainly do not respect the
person that is sending these kinds of pictures.
Perhaps the most ironic part, if not the
worst, is that
the one SENDING these messages [originally or forwarding it to friends]
is most
likely to get in trouble, because it could be considered to be sending unsolicited pornography, which is
usually illegal and a major deal! Be
careful what you send!
Now, I know most kids are NOT taking
and sending their own pictures, but many are involved in looking at
them,
showing others or passing them along to their own friends. Teens need
to use
common sense and never forward things like that if they receive them,
and try
to discourage others from doing so also…don’t compound
other people’s
mistakes. This is true not only of
sexting, but of any behavior which could hurt someone or their
reputation. And if you see pictures or
videos of people
doing things that are hurtful, harmful or illegal, tell an adult,
someone you
can trust, either a parent, a teacher, a counselor, or a youth
minister, so
that the actions can be stopped before they get out of hand. Even if you don’t want to disclose a
name,
they can help decide what to do. It’s
too bad that [again] something created for good uses, texting and
picture
messaging in this case, are used for inappropriate behavior. Use your head before you act.
Neil
Combs, YM St Leo’s Church
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