"Sexting" & What You Need To Know

The title has the link to the story about a teen committing suicide from a "sexting" incident. Until today, I have to admit that I never heard of this before. WOW! What the heck is going on and boy, how the world has evolved! I don't know about you but I remember growing up and as teenagers, there was peer pressure sure, but I can't imagine what our teens and youth are going through in this day and age. Most especially with the viral videos and way technology has come, who knew it'd take on the way it has. Incredible.

My heart goes out to this mother whom lost her only child so unnecessarily. She lost her beautiful daughter because she (the daughter) had poor judgement. The teenage girl sent a nude photo of herself to a boyfriend. They broke up and of course, the boy chose bad judgement and shared the photo with kids from school. She was called horrible names and labelled her. Just so sad. The girl missed school and her heart was broken and terribly embarrassed. In the end, she hung herself in her room.

Apparently this is an epidemic....this "sexting".

WHY, WHY, WHY Girls? Not only can you ruin your reputation, did you know you could also be arrested for distributing child pornography?

Don't give anyone the power to call you names. Everyone has their own insecurities and because they don't feel good about who they are so they want to put down others.

Here are some sexting statistics*:

The percent of teenagers who have sent or posted nude or semi-nude pictures or video of themselves:
20% of teenagers overall
22% of teen girls
18% of teen boys
11% of young teen girls ages 13-16
The percent of teenagers sending or posting sexually suggestive messages:
39% of all teenagers
37% of teen girls
40% of teen boys
15 Percent of teenagers who have sent or posted nude or seminude images of themselves say they have done so to someone they only knew online.
48 Percent of teenagers say they have received such messages
71 Percent of teen girls and 67% of teen guys who have sent or posted sexually suggestive content say they have sent or posted this content to a boyfriend or girlfriend.
21 Percent of teenage girls and 39% of teen boys say they have sent such content to someone they wanted to date or hook up with.
44 Percent of both teen girls and teen boys say it is common for sexually suggestive text messages to get shared with people other than the intended recipient.
36 Percent of teen girls and 39 % of teen boys say it is common for nude or semi-nude photos to get shared with people other than the intended recipient.
51 Percent of teen girls say pressure from a guy is a reason girls send sexy messages or images; only 18 % of teen boys cited pressure from female counterparts as a reason.
66 Percent of teen girls and 60% of teen boys say they did so to be “fun or flirtatious”; their most common reason for sending sexy content.
52 Percent of teenage girls used sexting as a “sexy present” for their boyfriend.
44 Percent of both teen girls and teen boys say they sent sexually suggestive messages or images in response to such content they received.
40 Percent of teenage girls said they sent sexually suggestive messages or images as “a joke.”
34 Percent of teen girls say they sent or posted sexually suggestive content to “feel sexy.”
12 Percent of teen girls felt “pressured” to send sexually suggestive messages or images.

For Canadian content about sexting, click here.

So, just thought I'd pass the info on in case you were like me and hadn't heard. Just another thing we can try to educate our children on and hope that if they ever do, they can stand tall and just "own it" so hopefully the embarrassment will go away quickly.

****Empowering Women, Inspiring Change****
*US Stats


http://myempoweringwomen.blogspot.com/