many teens possessing a smartphone these days, the creation and sharing of personal photos and videos have become prevalent and teens usually do so without their parents’ knowledge. This may not sound like a big deal since everyone does that nowadays. However, teens and even parents, do not realize that such sharing once posted or sent out, is out of their control. It can be viewed by millions of people globally, and is likely to be floating around on the internet even if one thinks it has been erased. Imagine if you share a photo or video with nudity, sex or sexually suggestive content (ie. Sexting, or otherwise known as sext) at a spur of a moment or due to peer pressure, don’t you think it can potentially haunt you for the rest of your life?
Unfortunately, many teenage girls sext as a joke or to gain attention or as an attempt to please the guys. On the other hand, boys usually succumb to peer pressure to sext. It is worse when teenagers witness that greater fame follows as a result of the release of lewd celebrity photos and videos that go viral online. They may misconstrue it as an acceptable behaviour. Not only are they devaluing their modesty, girls who sext are also devaluing their identity as an equal gender, putting themselves up as just sex objects. People may raise eyebrows but for the wrong reasons. They may enjoy viewing them but they surely will not respect the subject.
“[Sexting]…Don’t you think it can potentially haunt you for the rest of your life?”
Additionally, teens tend to think that there are no legal consequences to sexting. A teen who posts or sends explicitly sexual photos could face child pornography charges and be labeled as sex offenders for life.
Being teens, they may get off with a light punishment, but why should they want to risk losing their clean reputation, modesty, self-worth and freedom?
