Sexting Epidemic

“One day last winter Margarite posed naked before her bathroom mirror, held up her cellphone and took a picture. Then she sent the full-length frontal photo to Isaiah, her new boyfriend.

“Both were in eighth grade.

“They broke up soon after. A few weeks later, Isaiah forwarded the photo to another eighth-grade girl, once a friend of Margarite’s. Around 11 o’clock at night, that girl slapped a text message on it… Then she clicked open the long list of contacts on her phone and pressed ‘send.’

“In less than 24 hours, the effect was as if Margarite, 14, had sauntered naked down the hallways of the four middle schools… Hundreds, possibly thousands, of students had received her photo and forwarded it.”

So goes the story as it was told in The New York Times over the weekend. And unfortunately, so goes the story in the lives of many teenagers that you may know. The new sexting trend is no distant phenomenon. What is sexting? It’s the practice of sending sexual photos, videos or texts from one cellphone to another, and it is surprisingly common among teenagers. According to one study in 2009, 20% of teenagers have sexted (22% of teen girls, 18% of teen boys, and 11% of young teen girls [ages 13-16]).

I would encourage all parents to read the rest of the story from The New York Times and to remember their unique responsibility to shepherd the hearts of their children (Deuteronomy 11:18-19; Proverbs 22:6). Christian parents have to be absolutely committed in a counter-cultural kind of a way to providing guidance to their kids. Dads, that means that you have a special responsibility for the protection of your daughters and the leadership of your sons. That is something that you will not be able to do if you give unfettered and unaccountable access to technology. Read the rest here.