By Jocelyn Cazares
Editor
As I watched CW’s 90210 last Tuesday, it became apparent that sexting had hit the mainstream.
Out of revenge, Naomi stole pornographic graphic photo texts of Annie, her arch-enemy. Naomi took those texts and sent them to the entire school.
But this isn’t just fiction.
The phenomenon of “sexting,” a term thought up by the mainstream media that refers to sending provocative pictures via text message, is more common than most people think.
Sexting has become a common thing that in our society in which no school is immune to, including this one.
In recent years, sexting has been prevalent within Hollywood as well. Hollywood Starlets, including teenager Vanessa Hudgens and non-nude, but sultry photos of Miley Cyrus have circulated throughout gossip magazines and on the Internet.
Due to the increased technology throughout the years, the ways in which people—namely teenagers—sexually express themselves with other individuals have changed drastically. The time of love letters is no more. Rather all communication has been digitized.
Crushes are no longer simply childish things that are not followed up on, but rather to interest the other sex, teenagers text each other hoping to entice the other individual through promises of sexual acts, which leads to the sending of promiscuous pictures that are later circulated throughout schools.
But what many fail to realize is the seriousness of these actions which recently landed various teenagers with legal charges of child pornography distribution and possession. Such cases have occurred throughout the United States along with the increasing popularity of sexting including the Pennsylvania case.
In the Pennsylvania case, six Pennsylvania high school students are facing child pornography charges after three teenage girls allegedly took nude or semi-nude photos of themselves and shared them with male classmates via their cell phones.
The female students at Greensburg Salem High School in Greensburg, Penn.—all 14- or 15-years-old—face charges of manufacturing, disseminating or possessing child pornography while the boys, who are 16 and 17, face charges of possession, according to WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh, which published the story on its Web site a week ago.
Also in Vermont, an 18-year-old pleaded guilty to reduced charges Thursday in Vermont’s first “sexting” case, in which he allegedly directed two teenage girls to videotape or photograph themselves performing sex acts and send him the results.
As texting becomes more common, along with legal systems attempting to eliminate texting, it is apparent that teenagers participating in sexting think about the legal consequences that may arise from a simple text.
So teenagers, here’s my advice before sending that sextext to anyone, decide whether it’s worth the risk off the embarrassment that you’ll feel upon having the entire school see pictures of you naked.