May 27, 2010 - “Sexting” has become quite the fad these days but kids don’t understand what they’re getting themselves into when they send naked pictures of themselves to their boyfriends and girlfriends via their cell phones.
The National Campaign to Prevent teen Unplanned Pregnancy found one in five teens are sending or posting nude photos of themselves for friends to see. Another survey found 40 percent of adolescent girls feel pressured into sending naked pictures via cell phones to their boyfriends, and 20 percent of boys reported feeling pressured.
"It's just what kids do these days," says Steve Smith, the school resource officer for Mill Creek's Jackson High School. "They have no idea the damage it can do and how permanent it is."
Smith says he also works at the city’s middle school and has seen cases of kids as young as 12-years-old sexting.
"We only see the tip of the iceberg," he says. "There is a lot more of this going on than we know about."
High school girls are being pressured to send nude photos of themselves. "Some of these girls are really young," says Allie Pearson, a freshman.
"Then they break up," adds junior Freddie Vahdati. "And the pictures end up all over the school."
Officer Smith says these kids are like his own and he’s taking matters into his own hands. He’s confronting kids face-to-face about the dangers of sexting. He talks to them in hallways and hosts programs in the classrooms.
He knows how devastating this can be and doesn’t want to see this happen to students on his watch.
The courses focus on the illegality of taking, sending and receiving nude pictures of minors.
"They can go to jail for this sort of thing and even have to register as sex offenders for the rest of their lives," says Smith.
Smith says he tries to focus on specifics that teens can clearly comprehend.
"I tell them 'What if that picture went out on the Internet? Or better yet, what if everyone in the school saw it? How about if your parents saw it?' That gets them thinking."
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Source:
KING 5 News
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