Black and Married With Kids.com – A Positive Image of Marriage and Family

Are Your Kids Sexting?

Parenting

by  |  on February 27th, 2009  |  10 comments

From CBS:

While it may be shocking, the practice of “sexting” – sending nude pictures via text message – is not unusual, especially for high schoolers around the country.

This week, three teenage girls who allegedly sent nude or semi-nude cell phone pictures of themselves, and three male classmates in a western Pennsylvania high school who received them, are charged with child pornography.

In October a Texas eighth-grader spent the night in a juvenile detention center after his football coach found a nude picture on his cell phone that a fellow student sent him.

Roughly 20 percent of teens admit to participating in “sexting,” according to a nationwide survey (pdf) by the National Campaign to Support Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

BMWK family, how do you/would you mointor your child’s text messages? Do you regularly check for pictures and inappropriate messages?


About the author

Lamar and Ronnie Tyler are the creators of the award-winning blog BlackandMarriedWithKids.com . They also are behind the Amazon.com bestselling DVDs Happily Ever After: A Positive Image of Black Marriage, You Saved Me and Men Ain’t Boys that explores manhood in the African American community. The Tylers are also the proud parents of four children.



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Comments (10)

  1. Wtf? Friday - 27 / 02 / 2009 Reply
    Clearly this is not child pornography. These lawmakers are going mindless. It's 2009, instead of young boys sneaking a peaks at young girls behind bushes, they send "peaks" in picture messages--albeit with some rather serious unexpected consequences.
  2. TheDad Friday - 27 / 02 / 2009 Reply
    I thought that was a bit harsh also. TheDads last blog post..Videos We Love - New Heavy D Song!!
  3. Anna Friday - 27 / 02 / 2009 Reply
    I am trying to get this straight. If you send a text of yourself (and you are underage) to a boyfriend it is ok, but if the person who gets the text forwards it to "their buddy" list it's child porn and you get a go to juvie lock down. Give me a break. Teens do stupid things, I say scare the hell out of them about sextesting. Don't use them as an example to lock up in juvie hall.
  4. tanyetta Sunday - 01 / 03 / 2009 Reply
    My daughter is 21. I'm sure she is. :( My son is 4. He better not be sexting. :)
  5. Harriet Monday - 02 / 03 / 2009 Reply
    @ tanyetta, why are you sure your daughter is? @ forum, i'm curious if the same would be true if i texted a pic of my son playing in suds in the bathtub. there are a lot of gray area this could cover if tbese renegade da's are allowed to make these kinds of charges.
  6. Sasha Monday - 02 / 03 / 2009 Reply
    Yes, it is a jumbled area. It is similar to an 18 year old that has consensual sex with his 17 year old girlfriend and goes to jail for it, is prosecuted and has to register as a sex offender. (happens more than you think.) I think the bigger picture and question to ask is why do so many young girls (11 and 12) feel like they want to/have to send their nude pictures to young men to get attention. It correlates somewhat to the other post about what we are teaching our daughters (or not teaching them, as the case may be.) Girls younger and younger are out to prove that they are willing to do whatever it takes to get noticed and try to fill the empty hole in their soul... Please hug your daughters today, or your friends' daughters, or your students, or your sisters, and teach them that the way to love is not by pawning out their beautiful bodies.
  7. U4RiiA Monday - 02 / 03 / 2009 Reply
    Sasha, If I hug my students, I'll be arrested too.
  8. Alicia Monday - 02 / 03 / 2009 Reply
    Last year I found out that my just-turned-13-year-old daughter was sending pics of herself in her bra from the bathroom to some 8th grade boy. I was sick and happened to catch a phone call from him telling her to send more. I threatened the law on him and broke her phone in half! I only wish I would've gotten more info on him so he could be called out, removed from the school and arrested(I later found out he already sent them to others in the school and this was not the first time he did this). I instantly withdrew her and made her tell her father what she was doing (I can only PRAY she didn't go nude). She now lives with her father and step-mother as I continue to closely monitor her txting from afar. She now knows that any inappropriate material will be sent to the police. We are in a war to save our daughters and sons people! WAKE UP!!!This kind of tech savvy goes futher than we were used to. In seconds, those pics can be sold and posted for the world to see!! I hate to think she won't be able to get employment or respect 'cos of some ill-advised photo shoot. I lie awake EVERY night wondering if she's ruined her future...
  9. Marissa Thursday - 12 / 03 / 2009 Reply
    I think that this is ridiculous. Kids should NOT be threatened to be put in jail for sending racy photos on their cell phones. Kids will be kids and if a 14 year old girl is mature enough to send provacative pictures to boys in her school, she should be mature enough to handle the consequenses of that picture getting sent around. Why is this any different then when parents say "If you are mature enough to have sex, you are mature enough to raise a kid.".. .There are ALWAYS consequences for ALL actions. I think that the embarassement of getting a nude picture of yourself sent to the football team is punishment enough, and childpornography charges are crossing the line.