Sexting Now Almost Commonplace Sexting is the sending of sexually explicit messa

Question

Sexting Now Almost Commonplace

Sexting is the sending of sexually explicit messages and/or photos, primarily between mobile phones. Adult sexting is sexting between two consenting adults. In short, you take a suggestive (and perhaps sexually explicit) photo of yourself with your phone, attach a message to it, and send it to someone else's phone. The message itself is called a sext. Sexting first caught the public's attention in 2007 or so when numerous reports and stories began to surface about teen sexting. In a few instances, a teen took a sexually explicit photo of friends while in the school's shower facility and then texted it to numerous friends. Some teens have even been charged with child pornography for participating in sexting.

Adult sexting really grabbed the public's attention in mid-2011 when U.S. Congressman Anthony Weiner of New York sent sexually explicit photos of himself via Twitter to a 21-year-old woman in Washington. At first, Weiner denied the allegations, stating that his Twitter account had been hacked and someone was attempting to slur his good name. Later, it came out that Weiner had sexted six women over a three-year period, both before and during his marriage. Not long after, Weiner admitted that the sexting was his own and he resigned from Congress.

Page 251

Earlier that year, U.S. Representative (also of New York) Chris Lee had performed a similar type of sexting. He had used Craigslist to solicit a relationship. Eventually he used his mail account to send a shirtless photo of himself to a woman. When the Gawker broke the story, Lee resigned from his political position.

Below are some statistics related to teen and young adult sexting.

Teens who have sent sexually suggestive messages:

° 39 percent overall

° 37 percent of teen girls

° 40 percent of teen boys

° 48 percent—teens reporting having received sexts

Teens who have posted/sent sexually explicit photos/videos of themselves:

° 20 percent overall

° 22 percent of teen girls

° 18 percent of teen boys

° 11 percent of young teen girls ages 13–16

71 percent of teen girls and 67 percent of teen boys who have sexted have done so to a boyfriend/girlfriend.

21 percent of teen girls and 39 percent of teen boys who have sexted have done so to someone they wanted to date or to hook up with.

Sexting statistics among adults have been much harder to gather and have not yet been published. However, psychologist Susan Lipkins performed an online survey of people ages 13 to 72. She found that 66 percent had sent sexually explicit messages. Her published study went on to identify that individuals in a position of power or those who thirsted for power were more likely to sext than those who were not in a position of power or did not crave power. According to Gary Lewandowski, both men and women in power are more likely to cheat, flirt, and participate in sexting. As Lewandowski explains, “I am this great, powerful person. Who's going to question me?” (He was of course paraphrasing what a powerful person might say.) To many people, the statistics are absolutely alarming. Further, consider that many teens—for fear of reprisal—probably did not answer the survey honestly.

However, some people see the use of technology to support sexting as just another communication medium. If you have a phone conversation with your partner and say something suggestive regarding sex, have you committed sexting by telephone? What about a face-to-face communication? If you bare part of your body (something sexual obviously), have you committed a form of sexting without using technology?39,40,41

Questions

Adult sexting is perfectly legal, as it is the sharing of sexually explicit content between two consenting adults. But what about teen sexting—should that be legal? If a 16-year-old boy sends a sext to his 16-year-old partner, should that be considered child pornography? Why or why not?

If you refer back to Figure 8.1 on page 228, where would you place adult sexting—a minor ethical violation, a serious ethical violation, or a very serious ethical violation? What circumstances—consequences, society's opinion, likelihood of effect, time to consequences, relatedness, and reach of result—might move adult sexting from a minor ethical violation to a serious ethical violation and then finally on to a very serious ethical violation?

Consider the whole notion of power being tied to sexting, flirting, and cheating. From a psychological point of view why might this be true? Do some research into Tiger Woods's troubles with extra-marital affairs. Could his cheating be tied to his position of power? Is “power” and the temptations that go with it an excuse for such behavior?

What role can and should employers play in limiting (perhaps eliminating) sexting in the workplace? What about employee-to-employee sexting? What about employee-to-customer sexting? Regarding the latter, what sort of legal liability does an organization have if an employee sends an unwanted and unwelcome sext to another employee or to a customer?

These are purely for you to answer to yourself. Have you ever participated in sexting? Have you received a sext? Has learning more about ethics and the nonprivacy of technology-enabled communications reshaped your thinking about participating in questionable activities like sexting?

Explanation / Answer

Adult sexting is completely legal and even if they do, they know how to maintain without leaking and make it secretive as it depends on their own wishes and their partner's. This sexting doesn't even considered illegal or some nuisance by others as it is the correct age to have sex and talk about it. But they may even cheat on others to fulfill their wishes, but no one interfere in their personal life except those who live with them an find it really bad to have these thoughts as that person may be concerned with some good position.

But teen sexting is illegal as it just make them feel about sex in a smaller age which is quite a bad deal for them as that is not the age to think about sex but they should be provided sex education to understand them very well instead of just having some imaginable things about it and just leave their life for sex and do these rubbish things.

I personally suggest the adults to keep their sexting or such related activities privately, as it first affect those who depends on them for their life. For teens, it is not right age to do sexting or get influenced by others to do so as it just make them feel useless or waste after sometime they spent their life in these rubbish activities.

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