Please Stop The 'Sexting' Insanity - 0 views
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They define sexting as - "sending, receiving and/or posting sexy messages/photos (e.g. photos of themselves in their underwear, or without clothes, messages of a sexual or suggestive nature) online and via cell phone/email."
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he survey was self-selecting, i.e. girls volunteered to take it after seeing it promoted on the homepage. This always biases the results.
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But I also know how freaked out parents are about all of these issues — and unfortunately, the way this survey is being spun, along with a lot of the media coverage, only perpetuates a culture of fear around these issues.
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Flames of Moral Panic: You may have noticed that the media has fully embraced "sexting" [a term invented by the media] as the latest horror story about teens and technology. First it was about how the internet is teeming with predators a la "To Catch A Predator," with the most dramatic stories focusing on girls who met these predators in real life [read the real deal here: Online "Predators" And Their Victims]. Next it was about cyberbullying, highlighting the most extreme cases that ended in young people having to switch schools or even more tragically committing suicide. The latest is "sexting," where teens are naively sending and receiving sexually explicit photos or video of themselves to friends via cell phone, again, with the most dramatic cases highlighted.
