Jezebel 
Enter your username and password.
New York, 11:38 AM
Mon Nov 23
18 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors:
tips@jezebel.com
Editor-in-Chief:
Anna Holmes
Email | Twitter
Deputy Editor:
Dodai Stewart
Email | Twitter
Senior Contributing Editor:
Tracie Egan
Email | Twitter
Contributing Editors:
Anna North
Email | Twitter
Sadie Stein
Email | Twitter
Reporter:
Irin Carmon
Email
Editorial Assistant:
Margaret Hartmann
Email | Twitter
Contributors:
Jenna Sauers
Email
Rich Juzwiak
Email | Twitter
Lizzie Skurnick
Email
Interns:
Katy Kelleher
Twitter
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
02/17/09
It was pretty unfair that the principal punished HER, since she wasn't making it a public thing, but my school has pretty explicit policies of what you do both in and out of school that can affect your attendance. Granted, many of them are ignored, but A;DLAIFSLDF RUNNING OUT OF LOGIC. I'm just so embarrassed I'm part of this generation sometimes. Sorry.
02/17/09
02/17/09
The problem is, you can try to monitor kids as much as humanly possible, but unless you are with them 24/7, they're going to do stupid things. Warnings, open conversations, all of it can only go so far.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, kids are dumb, and they're going to do dumb things, not matter how open everyone is about things.
02/17/09
This was not that long ago! (Almost 6 years) I really do blame technology and MTV for kids becoming more and more materialistic and more apt to take naked pictures of themselves in high school. And, like always, I ask: Where are the parents? (My parents were busy people, but they always kept close tabs on what I was doing in high school)
02/17/09
I was playing golf with my 13 yr old son last year.
We were riding in the golf cart while he was intently looking at his cellphone.
I jokingly asked him if he was looking at "titty pictures"
"kind of" he said
"bikinis?" I said
"yeah" he said
"are there any good ones?" I asked (I mean I had to ask something so I could find out was was going on)
I nearly fell out of the golf cart when I saw these pictures.
not only were the pics provocative, some of them were actually artistic. some overtly sexual, some subtlely sexual.
the lighting, subject matter, stuff good enough to be in magazines. the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue had nothing on these girls.
all done by 13 and 14 yr old girls he had never met and didn't know.
these girls took these photos of themselves with the clear intent of circulating them everywhere to anyone.
not caring what man or boy saw them.
my question is - where are their parent? and what kind of parents have girls who do this?
I didn't freak out or make a scene.
I simply told my son to delete the pics because he could end up in "big trouble" (not even knowing what kind of "big trouble" really)
Even though he had nothing to do with the receipt of these pictures (it was a mass email send), I knew it had the makings of trouble.
subsequently I changed his phone service so that he can no longer send or receive attachments with texts and he has no internet access on his phone (call me a bad mom).
his school got wind of these pics being sent via school email (he goes to an all boys school) so they have disabled the ability of student email accounts to include any type of attachment.
should "sexting" among the under 18 set be a criminal offense?
No.
the girls and boys who do this are just plain stupid.
counseling, reprimand (oh, I don't know, maybe take away the cellphone?) and whatever humiliation goes with the territory should be enough to teach them a lesson.
02/17/09
02/17/09
(Incidentally, I'm pretty sure the high school was one of the rivals of the high school I attended when I lived in the suburbs of Salt Lake City, and if those students were anything like the judgmental little pricks I knew back then, she got hell for it.)
Anyways, I thought of that girl while reading this. And I'm sure that being kicked off the cheerleading squad will only make the situation worse.
02/17/09
Therefore the girls are unwittingly making CHILD PORN for people who have never met them to potentially look at.
If the kids are over 18 it's no issue nor should it be, who sees them naked, or what they do. The fact is that they are under 18 and once the pictures are sent they become illegal images to own or view.
(says the woman who sends naked cell phone pics to the new man friend and who can be seen naked on the internets, with no shame)
02/17/09
02/17/09
02/17/09
02/17/09
I think there is a connection between this and the hypersexualization of young women in the media today.
Girls internalize the message that their only source of power lies in their sexuality.
+ Watch video
02/17/09
02/17/09
02/17/09
(All the peer pressure / slut shaming about this is different, but I firmly believe that happened before we could send naked photos to each other's cell phones and will happen when this fad is done. Unfortunately shame and pressure are part of teenagerhood in North America.)
02/17/09
02/17/09
02/17/09
The thing is, your self-esteem and self-image are very vulnerable when you're a teenager. It's a different issue with teenagers because if they learn that it's okay to objectify themselves--and that's what they're doing, no one's looking at naked pictures and thinking of a girl's personality--it harms their development as people.
Yes, the human body is beautiful, and Americans are repressed, but this issue has nothing to do with North America. A European teenager isn't going to feel any different.
02/17/09
And I am not convinced it harms their development as people - certainly it has the potential to harm, but I doubt it is a universal effect.
I don't know enough about the teenage experience in Europe and Africa and Asia to generalize and say that bullying and objectification and shaming are part of the adolescent culture there, as they are here.
02/17/09
02/17/09
02/17/09
02/17/09
02/17/09
02/17/09
02/17/09
02/17/09
Because I presume that the people in charge of raising these CHILDREN are their PARENTS, who should be instilling them with values like self-respect and making wise choices. If you fail to behave responsibly with the phone I'm paying for? You no longer have a phone. For X amount of time. That and the social shame should probably do it!
I can't believe I'm saying this because it seems so obvious, but if parents are doing their jobs, the school won't have to get involved, because either a) it won't happen or b) it will be dealt with at home or c) if it's a sign of a larger problem, the child will be getting the help she needs.
02/17/09
I mean, sure, there are girls who want to, for whatever reason - although it would nice if they waited until they were a bit older! But the numbers of stories that are coming out and the statistics re: gender and age all point to girls feeling pressure, overt or not, to do this.
02/17/09
Society has made it come to this point. We're bombarded with sexual images and the expectation to be sexy and attractive. Girls are forced to see their value through their body, not through their intelligence or personality or character. It's disgusting.
02/17/09
02/17/09
However, many parents today actually follow what society says or they just don't talk to their kids. And kids at this age relate more to their peers than their parents, so it's even more difficult for parents to have influence over their kids. Plus, there is several accounts of backlash for not giving into peer pressure.
Hell, when I was in high school, I was pissed at my mother for telling me when to get home and what I was and wasn't allowed to do. It might have pissed me off then, but even when I made some mistakes, she wasn't always supportive, but she wanted me to be personally accountable. And that is something a good parent should do.
Being a good parent to a kid and imprinting them with good morals and reasoning can be done. It will just involved a lot of talking to them, love and support and sticking to punishments.