Parenting Teens

Back in the day, I remember how riske it was to snap a picture of myself in my nightshirt and shorts to give to my boyfriend to keep while I was away for the summer. Sure, he’d never seen me in said nightshirt before, and we’d not done anything past a bit of tonsil hockey, but it was the ‘remember me’ type of naughty that I knew he’d appreciate. Also, I knew mom wouldn’t notice or care about a picture where I was basically completely covered in when she went to pick them up from the developers.

Yeah, back in the day we had to send OUT our pictures for developing! Someone in another state would know all our faces and activities - before we even knew how good or bad the pictures we had taken were. With poloroids, it was instant gratification, and I’m sure some bewbs and butts showed up during the course of the camera’s picture taking life. But now?

Now everything is digital. Instant gratification of decent pictures that you can control completely - or so it seems.

You see, Sexting is the new word for sending naughty pictures - from saucy to erotic, from pg to x - via text message to your significant other. The problem with such things is that it doesn’t always stay within the confines of your boyfriend/girlfriends phone. For instance, one 20 year old male, a few years ago, got his 17 year old girlfriend at the time to pose for a picture on his phone. His next girlfriend located it, and sent the picture to the 17 year olds parents. You know what happened then? The 20 year old was charged with child pornography, and now much register as a sex offender! All because he had a nude photo of an ex girlfriend sent from his phone.

Yeah, it’s that serious. While taking a naughty picture seems harmless, many authorities are using the fullest extent of the law to punish such things as it usually involves teenagers - I mean child pornography? That’s harsh, folks. Some more stories:

– An Ohio teenager sent nude pictures of herself to a boyfriend and when they broke up, he sent them to other high school girls, who harassed Jesse Logan. The ordeal sent her into a spiraling depression.

In July, 2008, Logan hanged herself in her bedroom. She was 18.

– A 19-year-old Polk County man was accused of sending naked pictures of himself on his cell phone to a 14-year-old girl’s cell phone. Ronald Eugene Steward made his first appearance before a Polk judge this week and was ordered held under $105,000 bail.

– Over the weekend, Pinellas County middle school teacher Christy Lynn Martin, 32, was arrested on allegations she sent naked pictures of herself to the cell phone of a 14-year-old boy, an eighth-grader at Azalea Middle School, where she worked.

She was released this week after posting $20,000 bail.

So what do we do? Well, the obvious is that we need to talk to our kids - let them know what could happen, and what kind of limits we expect them to adhere too when taking pictures on their phones - swimsuits ok? Not ok? All covered up, all the time? ABSOLUTELY NO NUDITY EVER - better safe than sorry, right?

It’s important that you talk to your teen so that they understand the ramifications. Just because they think it won’t happen to them, doesn’t mean it can’t happen at all. Kids get jealous (adults too!) and vindictive, and things go wrong. The only actions that we have complete control over is our own - so play it safe.

Leave the naughty pictures to the poloroids.
(Yes, I know they’re no longer in production. That’s kinda the point!)