Why are school officials going through the content on student's cell phones?
Did I commit a crime when I was 15 and had sex with another 15 year old?
I think this new trend of teens texting risque photos to one another is in the long run going to be a positive thing for society.
It's time we amended some arbitrary and archaic nonsense laws involving teens and sexuality.
The marriage age needs to be raised to 18 in every state, with no caveats for "parental consent", which all too often translates to parental coercion.
And simultaneously, the age of sexual consent needs to be standardized among states (and also lowered, in my opinion, in many states; 17 and 18 are outrageous).
In Texas, a decade ago, minors could work in adult entertainment with parental consent. I danced on the same stage with 16 year olds. They just had to wear special wristbands and couldn't drink.
I wouldn't be surprised if that law has changed by now.
I think something (although I don't know what) needs to change about society's approach to teen mothers; teen parenthood really does look like an attractive option to young people who are desperate for more freedom and independence. The state grants young women a sort of unofficial "emancipated" status when they become mothers, and they have a lot more privileges and freedoms than they had before.
I do not think that the answer is to penalize teen moms (because one really can't effectively parent
without having a lot more freedom and adult privileges than the average, non-parent minor has), but rather to extend these freedoms to
all teenagers.
I understand the fears about child pornography. Nobody wants children victimized. But teens aren't children, and when they take naked pictures of
themselves, that isn't pornography. When they view thmeselves naked in the shower, do you think they're viewing pornography? It's just their body. Nudity isn't necessarily pornography.
I believe it reflects poor judgement on the part of the teens. They should be made aware, possibly by a special school assembly or guest speaker in health class, of the potential consequences of distributing nude pictures of oneself. One doesn't know whose hands these pictures might fall into. they could come back and embarrass one later in life. They might harm one's future career, and cause one untold social embarrassment, if they fell into the wrong hands. Teens can understand this. They understand the threat of social embarrassment. They need to be made aware that they are being naive if they believe that whoever they are sending these pictures to will be honorable and not broadcast them to others.
But as far as
legal ramifications? No.
This is preposterous and needs to stop
now.
This trend of sending nude or risque images via text and email is ubiquitous among teens right now.
Look how many allegedly "wholesome" celebrity teens have been busted doing it. Miley Cyrus, Vanessa Hudgens.
Legal consequences resulting in jail time are not the appropriate approach to this issue.
The combination of teens and technology should force adults- parents, social leaders, legislators- to sit down and re-evaluate our whole approach to this matter, and to the larger matter of teen sexuality in general.
Teens not only
are sexual beings, they wish to be
recognized as such. They are trying to grow up. They are not children. They do not wish to be treated like children. Who
would want to be treated like a child? Children have no civil rights; they're hardly better than slaves or second-class citizens in our society, despite out "protectionist" attitude toward them.
The more society denies adolescent sexuality, the more adolescents are going to keep rubbing society's nose in it.
