Sexting is the Next Thing

Have you heard about the new term “sexting”? Apparently teenage girls are posing for nude pictures for their boyfriends which are then passed around via cell phones and blackberries. Sending a picture to your boyfriend is a trend that goes back to the beginning of time. Hell, even the movie Titanic included a girl wanting a nude pic of herself! Anyway, sexting is just this generations way of giving their boyfriend a picture of themself. But instead of wearing tight sweaters or bathing suits girls today are in their birthday suits. And unlike earlier photos or portraits, these pics eventually get passed around and never go away.

Here in Florida there is a case that has received national attention. A 16 year old girl took nude pictures of herself on her cell and sent them to her 17 year old boyfriend. She later broke up with him and he became hurt and angry. So he somehow sent her nude photos to everyone in her cell phone address book which included her parents, grandparents and even some teachers. Since the girl is 16 and the boyfriend recently turned 18 he will be labeled as a felony sex offender for sending child pornography. He has now been turned down from the college he was supposed to attend this fall plus he will have to register himself as a sex offender until he is in his mid 40s. What he did was wrong and the girl was horribly embarrassed but it doesn’t seem to me to be cause to ruin this kid’s entire life. Our laws just aren’t keeping up with technological and generational changes such as sexting.

Now there are a lot of things kids do today that make absolutely no sense to me. But I must admit that sexting is one trend which I can almost understand. If truth be told, when I hear them talking about girls sending pictures to their boyfriends I keep having a flashback to this yellow bikini. That is what I wore when my roommate took pictures of me that I sent to an old boyfriend who was in the Air Force. He had asked for some pictures and although the romance was about over I was nonetheless flattered. Besides I grew up on those old war movies where the soldiers always had pictures of the girl back home so it seemed like the thing to do. Nudity never even entered the equation back then. Instead I had this cute yellow bikini and for some long forgotten reason stood on the fire escape in my college dorm while my girlfriend snapped away.

So the question to ask myself now is if I would have taken the pictures of myself nude? I don’t think so. If I were in college today, I could probably see myself donning a smaller bikini but I think that is as adventurous as I would get. And I definitely couldn’t imagine taking any nude pictures while I was in high school. Granted I was only a few months out of high school when I stood on the fire escape in my bikini but there is still a world of difference between 16 and 18.

What do you think? Should we instead be admiring kids today for feeling comfortable enough to pose nude and for having a healthy view of their bodies unlike earlier Puritanical generations? It really must it must be very confusing. On one hand we teach young girls to be proud of their bodies and not to be ashamed of how they look. Then these girls simply take the age old trend of giving a picture of yourself to your boyfriend to the next level by posing nude for them. Then society freaks out by these very same pictures and calls it smut, obscene and pornography. And both the girl and boy’s life is changed forever. Until this story I hadn’t thought of my youthful pictures for years. But for this girl, anyone, including future employers, boyfriends and even some day her own children will now be able to find her nude picture on the internet.

I don’t know what the answer is. I just know that the kid here in Florida is not a sex offender or child pornographer. His only fault is in thinking with the wrong head - which is true of nearly every teenage boy (and older ones too)! As for that 16 year old girl and all the teen girls, they need to keep their panties on, for more than one reason. Yet we also still need to teach them to be proud of their bodies. It is a difficult line to walk.

Oh wait. When these kids are older if they still want to take nude pictures of each other, they need to forget using cell phones and go low tech instead. And if you’re a baby boomer this answer might bring a little smile to your face. Can you say …. Polaroids?