It’s Called Sexting and It’s a Crime

FraudsWatch.com
Sexting

<p>The cell phone has revolutionized the way communications take place in today&&num;8217&semi;s culture&period;The world of Star Trek has reached beyond the big screen to become a modern day technological tool that has made wireless communication a common day occurrence for millions of people&period; No longer are consumers bound to hard-wired telephones of years past&comma; the cellular phone has made it possible to communicate with just about anyone&comma; anywhere&period;Advances in technology have taken cell phones from the size of a brick to the size of a credit card&comma; and now incorporates a host of new features&comma; including Internet-enabled cameras that capture images and record video that can be uploaded to the Web&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>No longer just a tool for business&comma; cell phones are now used to link individuals together&comma; and are increasingly being used by teens and pre-teens to communicate with one another&period;Thousands of text messages travel wirelessly from phone to phone as a new generation of cell phone users chat endlessly back and forth&period;These next generation phones also share text&comma; video and digital images quickly and efficiently&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But it&&num;8217&semi;s not just pictures of Fido and Calico that are being shared one with another&period;A recent study shows that 1 in 5 teen and pre-teen cell phone users are using their wireless phones to send inappropriate or nude pictures &lpar;or video&rpar; of themselves with other cell phone users&period;Often sent from girlfriend to boyfriend &lpar;following a trend set by two of the stars of High School Musical&rpar;&comma; these pictures are often shared with others without the sender&&num;8217&semi;s knowledge or consent&period;Whether forwarded to others to brag&comma; or as a means of retaliation in the event of an argument&comma; the end result is often humiliation&comma; embarrassment&comma; or degradation of the person featured in the shared image&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;27907" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-27907" style&equals;"width&colon; 490px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignright"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;its-called-sexting-and-its-a-crime&sol;teens-sexting&sol;" rel&equals;"attachment wp-att-27907"><img class&equals;"wp-image-27907 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;05&sol;Teens-Sexting-490x315&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Teens Sexting" width&equals;"490" height&equals;"315" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-27907" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Teens Sexting<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The practice is called &&num;8220&semi;<strong>Sexting<&sol;strong>&&num;8221&semi; and it&&num;8217&semi;s a <strong>crime<&sol;strong>&period; Yet few juveniles &lpar;and fewer parents&rpar; know this is the case&period;In some states&comma; <em>sexting<&sol;em> is a misdemeanor&comma; but in a growing number of others it is a felony&period; An increasing number of states view this as the transmission of child pornography &lpar;and prosecute it as such&rpar; if the images are of someone under the age of 18 &lpar;or if inappropriate images are sent to someone under age 18&rpar;&period; And the courts are not just &&num;8220&semi;slapping the wrist&&num;8221&semi; of offenders any longer&semi; as the proliferation of cases are filtering into the courts&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In a recent case in Florida&comma; a 17-year old girl sent a nude picture of herself to her 18-year old boyfriend&period; After an argument&comma; the 18-year old boy sent the nude picture to everyone in the girl&&num;8217&semi;s &&num;8220&semi;friends&&num;8221&semi; list&comma; which unbeknownst to him included her teachers&comma; parents&comma; and close friends&period;The young man was arrested&comma; charged and convicted of transmitting child pornography via an electronic medium and was ordered to register as a sex offender&period; He lost his job&comma; was kicked out of college&comma; and is unable to live with his Father because his dad lives too close to a school&period; He was also ordered to go through a sex offender&&num;8217&semi;s rehabilitation class&comma; and will remain on the registered sex offender&&num;8217&semi;s list until the age of 45&period; His picture is featured on the state&&num;8217&semi;s website&comma; and has to daily deal with the humiliation and embarrassment for his actions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The young girl who sent him the picture also faced embarrassment&comma; ridicule and humiliation from friends and others who heard about the high profile case&period; The lives of two families were forever damaged because a young girl thought it &&num;8220&semi;cool&&num;8221&semi; to send naked pictures of herself to her boyfriend and subsequently having those images forwarded &lpar;without her knowledge or consent&rpar; to others by her boyfriend after a fight&period; Both actions were wrong&comma; and both individuals &lpar;as well as their families&rpar; have had to deal with the consequences of wrong choices&&num;8230&semi; and for the young boy&comma; those consequences will follow him for the next 25-30 years&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In Pennsylvania&comma; three girls who sent nude or partially nude pictures of themselves to three boys in their school now face felony charges of distributing child pornography&period; A Texas eighth grader was jailed for sending a nude picture of himself to another student&period; In Virginia&comma; two boys &lpar;ages 15 and 18&rpar; have been charged with solicitation and possession of child pornography with intent to distribute after law enforcement learned the teens sought nude pictures from three juveniles&comma; one in elementary school&period; According to a report issued by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children&comma; of the 2100 children who were identified as victims of online porn&comma; 1 in 4 initially sent the images to themselves&period; Some did it for fun&comma; and others were tricked by adults they met online&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In another case in Pennsylvania&comma; a 15-year old girl has been charged for sending nude pictures of herself over the Internet to a 27 year old she met online&period; The intent was not to jail her&comma; but to help her get counseling and other help she needs&comma; according to the District Attorney handling the case&period; He added the 27 year old has been sentenced to 10 years for having sex with the juvenile&period; In Ohio&comma; 8 teens have been arrested for trading nude pictures of themselves with others&period;One of the girl&&num;8217&semi;s fathers found the images and reported authorities&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Yet every day this practice continues&comma; and is proliferating at an alarming rate among today&&num;8217&semi;s youth<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><b><i>Cyber-bullying<&sol;i><&sol;b> is the use of any electronic medium to humiliate&comma; ridicule&comma; intimidate&comma; embarrass&comma; threaten or abuse another person&period; In a culture that uses sex to sell everything from underwear to toothpaste&comma; today&&num;8217&semi;s teens and preteens often have no sense or morality when it comes to decency standards&period;In the 1960&&num;8217&semi;s&comma; TV censors would not permit open-mouthed kisses to be shown&comma; and even married couples slept in separate twin beds on many TV shows&period; A generation later&comma; little &lpar;if anything&rpar; is left to the imagination&&num;8230&semi;even in prime time&period; Music videos&comma; movies&comma; soap operas&comma; and even &lpar;so-called&rpar; family television shows continue to push the decency boundaries to the point that few&comma; if any&comma; moral standards are enforced by the FCC&period; Today&&num;8217&semi;s teens and pre-teens see so many sex acts on TV&comma; they have accepted the lack of decency standards as normal&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Coupled with a growing lack of parental supervision and guidance&comma; today&&num;8217&semi;s youth lack moral restraint and see no problem with sending inappropriate or nude pictures of themselves to others &lpar;or posting them online&rpar;&period; What they don&&num;8217&semi;t understand is that once an image is posted on the Internet&comma; it is forever there and can&&num;8217&semi;t be removed&period; Today&&num;8217&semi;s technology archives virtually all email&comma; as well as postings to social networking &lpar;and other&rpar; websites&period; And images sent to another person&&num;8217&semi;s cell phone are now outside their control and can be posted to a website or shared with others without their knowledge or consent&period; Once forwarded to other cell phones by a third party&comma; those images can be forwarded to countless others anywhere in the world&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But it&&num;8217&semi;s not just teens and pre-teens who are engaging in this activity&period; A small but growing number of adults&comma; including married spouses&comma; are sending inappropriate or nude pictures of themselves over cell phones&period; Those who should know better &lpar;and be setting a positive example for the younger generation to follow&rpar; are sadly illustrating a disturbing lack of conscience and moral fortitude by engaging in sexting&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The saddest part of sexting is that the act of <i>cyber-bullying<&sol;i> starts with the individual who actually sends a picture of himself &lpar;or herself&rpar; to another person&period; <strong>Sexting<&sol;strong> is humiliating to the person who sends his or her picture to another&comma; whether they realize it or not&&num;8230&semi;and this is compounded when those images are shared with others either by cell phone or posting online&period; The young girl who takes an inappropriate picture of herself and sends it to her boyfriend is just as guilty of <b>cyber-bullying<&sol;b> as the boyfriend who shares it with others&period; Both acts are immoral&comma; and could be considered a <strong>crime<&sol;strong>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>What many teens and pre-teens don&&num;8217&semi;t consider now is the long term implications of impulsive&comma; foolish choices made today&period; Imagine the shock when a prospective employer conducts a background check on a recent high school or college graduate only to find inappropriate or nude pictures posted in a number of Internet archives&period; As previously stated&comma; these images&comma; once posted&comma; are there forever and can be accessible to anyone who has Internet access&period; As these teens and pre-teens marry in the future&comma; and their children begin to search online&comma; how will these parents explain the fact their suggestive&comma; inappropriate&comma; or naked images are there&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A question that deserves to be asked is why do children need cell phones in the first place&quest; While they do provide a measure of convenience &lpar;and security&rpar;&comma; the vast majority of children use cell phones solely for pleasure and not for other purposes&period; Parents spend hundreds &lpar;sometimes thousands&rpar; of dollars each year to provide cell phones almost exclusively so they can talk to their friends&comma; play games&comma; or engage in web-based activities using their phones&period; And if the child is given a phone primarily for communication purposes with their family &lpar;or emergencies&rpar;&comma; do they really need a gadget-laden phone with all the bells and whistles &lpar;including Internet access or image capture capabilities&rpar;&quest; Would not a basic cell phone suffice&quest; How many instances are there where a landline is not readily available that a cell phone is a necessity&comma; and not a luxury&quest; If children are given a cell phone&comma; are they mature enough to use it appropriately&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Plus there are no studies on the long-term health risks associated with cell phone use by children into adulthood<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It is important to note that if a parent is providing a cell phone to a child&comma; and paying for the service&comma; they should understand they could be held liable in any civil action taken by others as a result of an inappropriate use of the cell phone by their children&period; Some federal legislators are even considering a measure that would hold <strong>parents criminally liable<&sol;strong> if the child&&num;8217&semi;s phone is used for <em>sexting<&sol;em> or other inappropriate uses&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Parents should talk to their children about cell phone use &lpar;and etiquette&rpar;&period; They should also regularly check their children&&num;8217&semi;s cell phones &lpar;and social networking sites&comma; like Facebook&comma; Orkut and MySpace&rpar; to make sure that there are no inappropriate images or content therein&period; As parents could be held liable for the content stored on or transmitted by their children&&num;8217&semi;s cell phones&comma; they have a vested interest in actively monitoring that phone&&num;8217&semi;s usage&period; Children should understand the potential ramifications of posting inappropriate or nude pictures of themselves or others on cell phones or the Internet &lpar;including email&rpar;&comma; and that the consequences of these wrong choices can be devastating to themselves and others&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>It&&num;8217&semi;s called &&num;8220&semi;sexting&&num;8221&semi;&comma; and it&&num;8217&semi;s a crime&period;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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