The Sexting Talk

The other day I overheard a group of McCulloch friends chatting and one of them referenced “that sexting assembly.” I had to ask.

They told me there was a special assembly for 6th graders cautioning them about inappropriate texting. Here are some thoughts.

  1. Can you imagine having to be the adult who leads the assembly full of 12 year olds on the topic of sexting? Brutal. We need to find out who’s job that is and give them a raise.
  2. Don’t you think there was some event that brought this on? E-mail me if you know what happened. Just because I like scoop.
By Merritt Patterson Feb. 19, 2010 | 1:35 pm | 15 Comments | Comments RSS
15 comments to "The Sexting Talk"
  1. Eric @ February 19, 2010 at 2:38 pm
    Can’t help with your questions but have one for you: Based on how the “mom” is dressed in your B roll photo, where could those little snowflakes possibly get any notions concerning sex?
    capcha should be “pudenda” or “cleave”

  2. Rama @ February 19, 2010 at 3:12 pm
    Is the graphic intentionally ironic? Because the mom (?) who’s aghast and/or befuddled at the prospect of her teen’s sexuality is rocking some signal-mixing cleavage, not to mention some gynecologically tight jeans.

  3. James Tucker @ February 19, 2010 at 3:12 pm
    this is an easy one. I’ve had this talk with both my kids. It starts with a discussion on how technology has evolved to allow anyone to take a picture of themselves or others in compromising or inappropriate situations. When you take one of these digital pictures, on a camera phone, or a web cam hooked to a computer, you are one button-push away from those pictures being published on the internet….forever. With a digital camera you have one extra step but it is basically the same thing. Once on the internet those pictures will never be fully purged from it.

    Secondly, and in capital letters, HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLE THINK THAT GIVING AN INAPPROPIATE PICTURE OF YOURSELF TO SOMEONE WILL ONLY GIVE THEM THE POWER AND ABILITY TO BEND YOU TO THEIR WILL…AND THEY WILL IN WAYS THAT YOU WILL SURELY REGRET. For women especially, they mystery of your body gives you a certain power over men. Take away the mystery take away your power. I am not sure I would do this even with my spouse.

    Thirdly, It will ruin your reputation and your parents reputation. If you are in a private school (public schools have to take every kid that enrolls), you will get kicked out. Nix a lot of colleges and if you are in college, you can be kicked out as well.

    Fourthly, When you send a picture to someone else you are involving them in a crime if you are under 18. Your are also contributing, negatively, to the whole dynamic of temptation.

    Knowing all this why would you do it?

  4. bc @ February 19, 2010 at 4:08 pm
    The real shame about this whole thing is the newly devloped routes of discovering sexuality.

    Mine started at a young age with Revenge of the Nerds. My older siblings with Caddyshack. Nowadays it’s with a sext of Cathy from Geography.

    Where have Betty Childs and Lacey Underall gone?

    But, seriously, I wish I had had this technology in my day, but am so glad I didn’t. And I can’t even get my wife to do this kind of thing now, so these teeny boppers must be a different breed…

  5. kmom @ February 19, 2010 at 4:23 pm
    The things my kidds have seen on other kids cell phones would make your hair stand straight up – and they started telling me about back in middle school. Both boys and girls taking explicit pics of themselves and texting them – of course they end up all over hell and back, including on Facebook. I’m glad to hear the school is addressing it, because I guarantee you there are oblivious parents out there that haven’t heard of it, or think their precious would never consider such a thing, so they’d never speak of it.

    Mr. Tucker’s words rock, just memorize that speech and repeat to your little cherubs.

  6. Merritt Patterson @ February 19, 2010 at 4:29 pm
    So, don’t those kids get their cell phones taken away? Forever?

  7. bc @ February 19, 2010 at 6:48 pm
    I’ve got it. Abstinence doesn’t work. What about condoms? I’m talking camera phone sized condoms. That way, if your kid decides to have sext, they can use a condom phone cover that adequately blurs them from recognition when the photo is snapped. Who is that fuzzy naked form behind that bluish hue with several ribs across the lens? It’s not your kid.

    Available sizes come in classic flip phone and XXL for the iPhone/Blackberry crowd.

  8. James Tucker @ February 20, 2010 at 12:23 pm
    @bc condoms leak. And what happens if your phone is to big? It will just stretch that latex till it is almost transparent. Abstinence is probably the only alternative.

  9. really @ February 20, 2010 at 6:55 pm
    I know from AT&T, you can have Media Net blocked from your kid’s phone. They can still text, but not send picture messages.

  10. Neal @ February 21, 2010 at 7:10 pm
    @Merritt – No kidding. And don’t just take the phone away – delete all the bad text messages then smash the phone with a sledgehammer. Why? Because your child (and by extension, you) are in possession of kiddie porn and conceivably could end up on a sex offender registry.

    Two of many such horror stories are here and here.

  11. DemBones @ February 22, 2010 at 11:18 am
    For kids, stick to an old-fashioned phone not capable of pictures. Texting and occasional calling are sufficient.

  12. JB @ February 22, 2010 at 1:37 pm
    Just last week some parents were dealing with this type of situation – their son received a photo via text from an 8th grade girl sans clothes. I applaud the school for addressing and agree – remove all media/photo ability from phones with users under the age of 18.

  13. PCMom @ February 22, 2010 at 2:10 pm
    Halloween, 2009. My child went to party “supervised” at another 9th graders house. Pool house/game room/media room. Walked in on two couples “neck-ed” in media room. Yes, same room. Mortified/humiliated – he walked home alone by 9.15pm – because he didn’t know what to do. Later, someone obviously did same thing he did – but took pictures. Guess where those pictures went? Not funny, not appropriate but lesson learned. On Monday, I asked him how English was (one of the girls was in his class) and he turned almost purple from embarrassment. I never brought it up again.

  14. matt @ February 22, 2010 at 8:52 pm
    What is “neck-ed”? Is that like “nekkid”, as in the colloquialism that septuagenarian newspaper writers use instead of naked? Or is it like neck-ed as in “necking” (more of a quadragenarian term)? If it’s the latter your son is weird and should be shunned from proper social circles until he can reinvent himself in college. Perhaps the response is reasonable if they were, in fact, nude.

    Re: “sexting”, I blame the over-earnest 5:00 news reporter for this phenomenon. Like the infamous “rainbow parties”, sexting probably wasn’t even a real thing until a rumored occurrence led the evening news in some town like Wichita, KS. Then teens watching were like hmm, that’s not a bad idea, let’s give it a go. Next thing you know your talking about inappropriate uses for equal signs and parentheses in front of a bunch of middle schoolers. If you missed that, I’ll start it for you … ===

  15. James Tucker @ February 23, 2010 at 9:47 am
    @matt, You are not giving our little cherubs credit for being creative in the digital age. Since texting was, initially, a kid thing I think that sexting was probably also kid thing. I am sure the first picture was sent an hour after picture mail became available.

    Everyone else, I have a friend who found out that his near-east born wife was using her computer and web-cam set up to make money on the side. That was 5 years ago.
    the first time I encountered this with teens was 3 years ago and it also had to do with web cams. These parents had been told that their daughter needed a web cam for school and it turned out otherwise. Web cams have been widely available for 5 plus years and I am sure, like picture mail, that people were using web cams to send “nekkid” pics of themselves 5 minutes after the first one rolled of the assembly line.

    Don’t be lulled into thinking that its just about camera phones. It is about the mind set of the kids (and the adults) who think this kind of behavior is acceptable and/or will always remain private.

Leave a Reply