Kingdom Harbor

Associated Press featured an article this week entitled, ‘Sexting’ Is More Common Than You Think.  The article begins:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Think your kid is not ”sexting”? Think again. Sexting — sharing sexually explicit photos, videos and chat by cell phone or online — is fairly commonplace among young people, despite sometimes grim consequences for those who do it.

More than a quarter of young people have been involved in sexting in some form, an Associated Press-MTV poll found.

That includes Sammy, a 16-year-old from the San Francisco Bay Area who asked that his last name not be used. Sammy said he had shared naked pictures of himself with girlfriends. He also shared naked pictures of someone else that a friend had sent him.

What he didn’t realize at the time was that young people across the country — in Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania — have faced charges, in some cases felony charges, for sending nude pictures.

”That’s why I probably wouldn’t do it again,” Sammy said.

Yet, ”I just don’t see it as that big of a problem, personally.”

That was the view of nearly half of those surveyed who have been involved in sexting. The other half said it’s a serious problem — and did it anyway. Knowing there might be consequences hasn’t stopped them.

Read the entire article HERE.

So, as parents, pastors and mentors of teens, how do we approach an issue like this where many “just don’t see it as that big of a problem”?  

The article focused on some of the consequences including legal charges against anyone sending nude photos of minors — even the minor themselves — as well as sexting being linked to some suicide cases due to public humiliation after having one’s photo spread throughout the school.  The article points out the popular adolescent brain research that shows that teenagers don’t always think through all the possible future consequences for their actions.  Well, duh.  

But why do teens engage in this growingly popular activity in the first place?  (And, to be clear, young adults are even more into it than teenagers.) And what are the long-term consequences for those who do it?  Finally, as people of faith called to lives of sexual purity and virtue, how do we bring God’s truth to bear on this issue?  These are the questions I’m interested in exploring. 

So, what do you think?