The dangers of sexting -- Father's Day Friday
Andrew Ratner, the blogging columnist who has written here about, among other things, missing Halloween, is back with a post on the dangers of sexting -- teenagers sending out provocative messages from their cell phones. (You may recall the sad case of the young teenager who had sex with two different teachers from his school started with provocative text messages.)
Here's Andy:
I haven’t seen any examples of sexting yet -- the practice of kids sending nude or semi-nude photos of themselves or others over their cell phones -- but I have seen enough drunken videos and TMI messages posted by teen-agers online to know that many kids don't grasp that the first two letters in www. stand for "World Wide."
Practically every week brings new and horrifying tales of sexting. The latest story, out of Northeast Pennsylvania, had a new twist: three girls there are suing the local district attorney for threatening to prosecute them for cell-phone photos of two of them in bras from a slumber party two years ago.
Authorities might be getting carried away in some instances, but communities are also on edge because some of these sexting cases have ended tragically. A new online education game about to launch soon is designed to teach teen-agers how to use cell phones responsibly and to realize the consequences of sexting and cyberbullying.
In the game, called "It's Your Call," players become live-action characters in an interactive movie and are presented with a series of difficult decisions. The game will be available through the Web sites of WILL Interactive (http://www.willinteractive.com) and Web Wise Kids (http://www.webwisekids.org). They produced the game with Verizon and the ESA Foundation, a charity offshoot of the entertainment software industry. "Keeping our children safe is at the forefront of every parent’s mind," Sharon Sloane, president and CEO of WILL Interactive, Inc. said in a release. "Based on the success of previous programs that have helped kids improve personal decision-making, we are confident that this game will emphasize the importance of judicious cell phone etiquette."
Baltimoresun.com's 
Comments
You're right that teens forget the web is world wide. And it's not just teens; research shows that the human brain isn't mature until about age 25. But the teens are when the process begins, just when the body begins to mature. Physical maturity happens very quickly, though, and immature minds are naturally curious what all this "sex" stuff is all about. And they WILL try to find out.You can't stop that unless you want to lock up all the teens in solitary confinement. Nor will they listen to what all we old fuddy-duddies try to tell them. Get rid of all those stupid laws that make criminals out of kids doing what comes naturally.
Posted by: Charles Burton | March 28, 2009 8:24 PM
this is all totally wrong i think parents should acually be more concerned and have a sexting talk with them .
Posted by: Taylor | April 24, 2009 11:36 AM